Returning
by natory'sZone
Summary: Twenty-six years without human contact can really mess up one's mind. But what would happen when contact is made after all that time in the Nether? An Adventure to be seen that's what.
1. Prologue

Prologue

In the time when Mincraft was young and the creator Notch was leading the fedgling world, there was a minecraftian. This is not a story about the first mincraftian, Steve. Nay it was about a different person who's name is long forgotten even by its owner. He would always lurk in the shadows wishing for a better world where there were no hostile mobs nor Herobrine. he worked hard to make the finest weapons and armor to try his luck defeating the nightmare that was Herobrine for if there is no Herobrine, there is no hostile mobs. One day, without anyone knowing, he left to face the nightmare. He never return that night or even the following years. Many in his village thought he had died and made a small grave near the old church. But that is not quite what happened, not quite.

The minecraftian had found Herobrine and lost, thrown into the dreaded world known as the Nether, stripped of his armor and tools. Though he did not die, he did slowly lose his mind to the Nether and forgot who he once was. Now he was a wandering, insane soul, with a cold laugh that sent chills down all the other mobs spines. The Pigmen in particularly avoided him and his ever changing appearance.

He started off as a regular looking man, had a simple, hooded, white robe on that reach just below his knees. The robe-clad mincraftian also had a leather belt and a leather strap that went over his shoulder and across his chest, connected at the front with an iron ring. His eyes had been blue and his skin a pale tan, but soon his eyes bled into a crimson red without pupils and his skin blackened to that of Enderman standards. Soon enough his robes became torn and burnt in places as he continued to change . The Pigmen,Though, first started worrying when he started muttering nonsense to himself and to random objects. He terrified them more when a started going into unpredictible bursts of rage, killing anything in his path with his growing sharp claws. They left him alone after all that and fled upon seeing him. For twenty-six years this went on in the Nether and twenty-six years he was drawn deeper into his insanity. And after twenty-six years did another mincraftian land into the Nether, bringing light and hope with him...

**A/N i should probably be doing my other stories, but meh... so you like or not like?**


	2. Ch1 meeting

It was a normal day in the Nether; tons of lava, burning fires everywhere, moans of Ghasts, the usual torment and terror of the timeless place. However, up on a ledge near the top of the Nether overhanging a lava pool is a group of Pigmen teaching some newly spawned Pigmen the few rules of survival. They were just telling them of ignore and be ignored when quiet footsteps started to be heard in the distance.

They ignored it of course thinking it to be another Pigman or possible Magma slime and continue telling the noob Pigmen in their own tongue how mobs and the rare mincraftians alike would not attack if they themselves did not attack first. The sound of feet hitting the ground continued and soon a faint laughter could be heard as well. Still the Pigmen ignored it all except one of the experienced one. His nervousness was instantly visible as he started shaking all over and grew deathly quiet. This catches the rest of the Pigmen's attention as the elder Pigman opened his mouth and said quietly,

"Stay low and be silent, wait for it to pass." this earns confused stares from the newbies and sudden scared ones from the older ones.

One of the newbies spoke up and asked," why? You just told us leave the other mobs alone and there'll be no trouble."

"There are always exceptions young one, always." replied the elder Pigman to the newbie's question.

Soon afterwards he ushered the others to a dark corner on the ledge big enough to house all of them comfortably. They couldn't go to the only exit off the ledge since that was where the now quickening footfalls and laughter were coming from. Suddenly the dark laughter dies down into a small, but insane chuckle. The footsteps stop as well, but the chuckle remains.

Curious, one of the young Pigmen peeks his decaying head around the corner much to the horror of the older Pigmen and even a few timid young ones. He doesn't see anything at first, but then he glimpses white and black before he is forcibly yanked out of the hiding place as the others try to pull him away from the threat. They fail and the young Pigman is tossed into the molten hot lava pool below as the laughter comes back full blast.

"RUN! Make for the exit, quickly!" shouts one of the elders and everyone scrambles out and makes a mad dash towards the exit.

The lone figure that had ended the one Pigmen's life did not make a beeline at first for the others, but instead laughed at how they pushed one and another trying to fit through the small hole that was the exit. When a few of the Pigmen did get out did he start to walk towards them intending to make them go into a panic instead of actually killing them.

He got the desired effect as the Pigmen started going crazy trying to not be the last one out. Except one didn't go into a panic, the one who first became alerted to his presence. The elder Pigman actually stood his ground with his sword raised at the current threat much to the despise of said threat. Before any real fight started though, the Pigman checked over his shoulder to see if the others had made it out and then returning his attention to his opponent who to his shock had somehow created fireballs in his hands.

'How did he-?' was all the Pigman could think before the raging hot fire was shot towards him. He dodged the attack by jumping to his side and barrel rolling to his feet. The threat just fired again this time grazing the shoulder of the Pigman. Growing confident, the threat started firing more rapidly, hitting the Pigman faster than he could react.

The Pigman at first made to close the distance between him and the _**beast **_in front of him, but soon realized that it was pointless after getting hit by so many fireballs, albeit they were weak. He made to retreat after remembering how dangerous his infamous opponent's claws were as well. So even though Pigmen were highly praised amongst themselves and others for their close combat, he decided to flee away from the battle that had started simply because he could not get close enough and even if he did get close it would still be a hard to beat challenge. But as he made his way towards the exit, one last fireball strikes him in the back leaving behind a terrible wound that would scar if he made it out alive.

Although furious at the Pigman for not cowering in fear like the others, the white robe figure let his prey get away knowing that it had learn a lesson from standing up to him. He watched as the wounded Pigman stumbled out of the only exit as he himself sat down to enjoy being alone finally. He smiled wickedly at the image of the battle, how the Pigman didn't stand a chance against his newly found attack.

He discovered his fire attack by accident really; he had been munching on some raw mushrooms earlier when a rather unfortunate Pigman had angered him by stepping on _**ALL **_of his mushrooms saying something about trespassing. He didn't care what the mob had said for he had crushed his food he was eating and he had become absolutely rabid. At first he was just using his normal 'claw their face off until nothing is left' attacks, but this Pigman was an over-confident scumbag and he just _**WANTED**_ to_** burn his flesh**_ right off!

Somehow he did; he had felt as if he was on fire on the inside and the voice, his only friend, had told him to release it on the poor fool who dared challenge him so stubbornly. And when he followed voice's advice, followed the guidance, fire leaped from his hands and hit the Pigman square in the chest. The shocked Pigman had ended up tumbling down the hill they were on and nearly got his face burned off by a nearby lava-fall. He gave chase to the falling Pigman and when the Pigman had gotten up after bouncing off so many blocks, he was hit in the face with a fist full of fire. The Pigman had moved backwards clutching his face when he fell down a random hole in the ground. That fall had broken the Pigman's neck if he recalled correctly…

'And good riddance, that idiot got what was coming to him!' he angrily thought, but it did make him think. How was he able to shoot fire from his hands when he couldn't before?

He didn't care actually and shrugged it off as he got on his feet again. As long as it was useful it didn't mattered and so he began to wander off the ledge his latest fight had been on.

When he got off the ledge he just kept walking in a random direction, mumbling or chuckling at his own thoughts every now and again. Most of the other mobs he passed quickly scurried away from him as he was known for his sudden lash outs on unsuspecting mobs. But he didn't do any more attacks today as he didn't feel like it. Besides, voice was telling him some funny jokes and he didn't want him to stop joking now did he?

Soon though, he heard the sound of a Ghast attacking in the distance. He started to darkly chuckle at the thought of some poor mob who had offended the Ghast being blown to pieces. Maybe he would go see the fight to kill off his never ending boredom for a time.

'Never mind,' he thought as the death cry of the battling Ghast was heard with a loud boom. But he also thought it strange that a Ghast would die so easily for even he had a hard time defeating a Ghast on the rare occasion when he actually felt like attacking them. He pondered for a bit before deciding it probably wasn't worth it and was about to continue in his wandering until he heard another Ghast starting to attack something except slightly closer than the first.

Now he was interested at what was going on over in the direction the Ghast attacks were happening. It's strange enough that one Ghast should attack and fail miserably so soon, but for another Ghast to attack the same thing most likely meant that whatever they were attacking was not known in the area. Yeah he remembered when the first Blazes appeared and the Ghasts kept attacking them constantly until they got use to the Blazes.

The Ghast let out another attack and another on whatever he couldn't see behind the tall wall of Nether Rack in front of him. The Voice urgently pointed him towards a gap in the wall, though Voice usually never was this frantic to get somewhere before. He shrugged thinking nothing of it and walked briskly towards the noise. But Voice's voice suddenly grew loud and hurt his ears that he felt like they were going to bleed out. Voice was mad at him and Voice said harsh words that he himself was quite familiar with all because he was going too slowly.

'FINE!' he thought just as loudly as he tried to get up after falling over from the sudden outburst. Why was the Ghasts so important to Voice anyway?! It's not like the Ghasts themselves are interesting at all, all they do is float around and shoot fire at things that scare them the little wimps. He was about to argue further with Voice when...

"!" a foreign sound rang through the Nether accompanied by the sound of one of the Ghasts fireballs smashing into the ground. The sound was a distance shout that he didn't recognize from any mob in the Nether and yet he felt like he should know from what the noise came from. With a start, he now knew why Voice wanted to get to fight badly for Voice KNEW that something new had entered this realm.

He dashed away quickly towards where the sound of the fight was coming from intending to get there as soon as possible. But before he got even close to the scene of the battle, the cry of a fallen Ghast was sounded in the same direction. He only picked up his pace trying to locate where the last of the fight was heard.

He bashed a few other mobs out of the way to many of their surprise at hitting the ground face-first and not getting mauled on the spot. Feeling that he would not find the source of the death of two Ghasts, he started to slow down to a walk. He felt ashamed at himself for not finding what Voice had found so Omni-important and Voice made clear that he was furious at him for failing. Why was Voice so mean today was all the white-hooded person could think before he heard something that gave him hope.

It sound feeble and strained, but he heard the same noise bouncing off the walls and it sounded close oh so very _close. _Quickly, he scanned his surrounding until he spotted an area that looked to be where the sound was coming from.

When he turned around the corner of the rather dull-looking area he saw something...odd, but was definitely the creature that the sound was coming from. It was looking away but still the odd creature didn't look like it belonged to the Nether despite its shock of red highlights in its hair. He also noticed that said creaturewas on one knee holding his left side with his right arm. It was painfully obvious that the creature had sustained a terrible burn from the Ghast.

Voice was speaking up again telling him to do something that he was quite used to. Kill him, murder the weak person in front of him, and put the person out of his misery. But as he started to walk towards the injured man intending to obey Voice, a thought cross his mind. One simple word, 'Why?' Voice shrieked at him to just do it like he did to countless other mobs before in the past. Still, why? Why would Voice so eagerly want this one person dead when Voice was never as eager to kill the other mobs? What was so important about this one figure that Voice wanted him to be dead so quickly.

He looked back at the wounded man who was still clutching his injured side while panting heavily. Right now the man didn't look like much of a threat that Voice seem to want him to believe. He looked closer at the man and noticed a something sharp tightly gripped in the man's other hand. Maybe that was what was concerning Voice so much? Coming to a conclusion, he decided he would fight and _maybe _kill the man before him just to be safe.

He started walking down towards the man aiming to fight when a flash of green past through his mind. Stopping in confusion at the sudden vision of green, he tried to shake it off, but it wasn't working. When he managed to push it back though did he realize that the man had noticed him and had the sharp object pointed directly at him.

"Do ya worst you foul beast from the Nether! I'd still fight you even if you were Herobrine!" The man had shouted at him and his words made something clicked in the back of his mind. The name Herobrine sounded... so familiar to him, as if the name meant something about himself. Unfortunately he couldn't seem to recalled as Voice's voice grew to a volume so loud that he almost went unconscious right there and then.

The man before him seemed to notice this since his face went from grim determination to utter surprise. The man even lower his sharp object, got up, came to his side in an attempt to see what was wrong. But he couldn't really tell what the man was saying now as all his senses started to blur. He couldn't even feel the man shake him trying to get his attention.

Somehow, though, amidst the furious cries of the Voice he heard another fainter voice. He only heard one word escape from faint voice, but it was clearer than anything else at that moment.

'Save.' Was what it said to him then it was gone in an instant much like the glimpse of green and the man before him could suddenly be heard again as Voice shrieked again and then became silent. He held his head for a few more moments before slightly lifting his head to look at the man fully for the first time.

The man had brown hair with dull red highlights nearing the tips with a mustache of the same color. The man also wore a thick brown shirt with a pair of black pants held up by a belt around his waist and his eyes seemed to be a bright golden yellow which matched well with his pale skin.

Still it was a few more seconds before he could actually make out what the man was saying. What had surprised him though was although he couldn't understand the man for a bit, he could still make out the concern in his voice. How can someone go from pointing a sharp object at him like he was the end of him to this sudden worried and caring nature?

"Lad! Can you hear me? What happened just then to you?" the man said while ever so gently shaking him as if to wake him up from a nightmare. Nightmare or not, he still was confused about all of what was happening so fast. He needed to sort himself out for a bit before doing anything so he turned his head towards the ground and closed his eyes for a bit. Why was Voice so violent to him today and who was that other voice he heard? Why had finding this man caused so much commotion to stir and why had he imagined something green when he had started walking to the man?

Maybe staying with the man would solve some of the confusion continuing to stir in his mind. He opened his eyes again to see the man had stopped shaking him lightly, but was still looking at him with concern in his lively eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but his own voice cracked for he never used it anymore except when laughing.

"Lad, are you okay there?" The man questioned with a soft voice as if afraid to break something fragile. His voice cracked again as he tried to speak to the man, but was having a lot of difficulty doing so. In the end he did manage to grind out a few words.

"**Who are you?" **he asked in a rough voice that sounded broken and tired. Honestly though he quite felt like that after all that has happened.

"I might as well ask you the same thing lad, but I guess I'll tell you who I am first." The man replied," my name is Aodh Rincaid and I ended up in yer place you call home by accident."

So the man was called Aodh; Seemed like a rather strange name to have, but it also seemed to fit him well. Though what Aodh asked him next actually made him stumped.

"I told you my name so what's yer's?" It was a simple question that was easy for most to answer, but for him it was not...

Because he couldn't remember it.


	3. Ch2 name

All was silent between two figures as the realm around them continued to endlessly burn. One of the figures was waiting in patience for the other to speak and the other was desperately trying to think as far back as he could remember but failed to go far enough back. Aodh at the moment thought that the strange person and/or mob in front of him actually knew its name and was just having trouble saying it out loud for he did notice previously how the stranger took his time to speak three simple words. So Aodh waited for an answer.

The other person smacked his head repeatedly and lightly trying to think, but it was pointless and he huffed in defeat. He shrugged his shoulders at Aodh with furrowed brows though now that he thought about it Aodh probably couldn't see his brows as they blended with his skin and…

'Wait why the Nether am I worried that he can't see my eyebrows?!' he angrily thought at himself. He dropped the subject and returned his attention back to Aodh who had disbelief in his eyes. In response to the staring, a deep growl rose from the back of his throat trying and succeeding in making Aodh snapped back to reality. HE HATED IT when ANYONE stared at him those SORRY SONS OF-!

"Heh… sorry lad that was a bit rude of me I just find it strange that you don't have a name fer yourself." Aodh apologized to him even if it was a crude one. It worked anyway as the last train of thought died down. Now a new one popped inside the nameless man's head; how do I tell him he did have one but he didn't remember? He thought a bit until he believed the words he chose from his limited vocabulary were enough to get the point across.

"**Have name… Forgot it." **He bluntly put out with his still rough voice. Aodh nodded his head and in doing so aggravated his harsh burns that also made a mark across his back. He winced at the now increasing throb of pain from the wounds he gained fighting off the Ghasts. Fighting off another whine trying to escape, he thought to the broken words of this strange being. The man before him must've been here a long time to have forgotten his own name. But he couldn't just call him 'lad' all the time so what temporary name could he call his new 'ally' of sorts?

"Well if yer forgot your old name why don't cha make a new one?"The mob/man being in front of him tilted his head to the side probably not understanding the concept or maybe thinking the idea over in his most likely damaged mind. When the being in front of him suddenly went down earlier Aodh didn't know to think.

"**New… name?" **The being quietly asked Aodh in a sort of demented, but innocent way. Yep, something was definitely oh so wrong with this new mystery man in front of Aodh. Just the way the lad before him stare menacingly, but also not quite was chilling.

'Mystery, there seems to be a lot of mystery behind this acquaintance' Aodh thought before deciding to answer the mob and/or man.

"Yep, just give yourself a brand new name. Could be anything you want to be named." Again, the mob-thing tilted his head to the side and seemed to become a bit distant mentally as those bright red eyes of his dimmed. Aodh wondered what such a lad could be thinking about on such a simple subject. Then again, the lad in front of him did just drop down and scream bloody murder and suddenly went dead quiet after like five minutes. Aodh mentally filed the thought under 'ask him later'

The lad in front of Aodh just shrugged his shoulders again as the glow of his eyes came back, but still look like it was a far-away stare.

'this is going to be a long day-or night' Aodh sighed before trying to come up with a name he come give the lad since said lad had no clue how to name himself. Aodh thought back to the word mystery, it was something he could work off of 'cause obliviously he wasn't actually naming him mystery, that's a more girly type name.

'Shadow… no…shady… nope… dark… Nope… Malise? So MUCH NOPE.' Aodh couldn't seem to think of name until it one came like a light bulb after a few more seconds.

'Shroud… yep Shroud sounds like a good name for now…' The name seemed to fit his now bored looking, maybe, ally. He had a hood that covered his face and his face itself was so dark that all he could make out were Shroud's eyes and occasionally his mouth when he spoke. That and Shroud's history seemed to be lost to even him.

"Hey, how does the name 'Shroud' sound to you? I certainly think it fits ya" Shroud seemed to perk up at that and nodded almost immediately once he heard it much to Aodh's surprise. He had at least expected him to take his time thinking it over.

"Okay… Shroud it is then." Aodh hesitantly replied. Soon after replying though did Aodh barely bit back a scream as his terrible burns made themselves known again.

"Now how 'bout you show me to some where safe? I need to treat these burns of mine…"  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Shroud', as the strange minecraftian had named him, was thinking not of getting the new name really, but rather if he could trust Aodh. He was TOO friendly for his liking and he keep struggling with the fact that somehow without Aodh's knowledge he got rid of Voice. Though Shroud could no longer hear Voice talk, or loudly shout in his mind, he could hear him hiss threateningly deep down. Maybe instead of getting rid of Voice, Aodh had only suppressed Voice? Other voice had also seemed to make a noise deep in Shroud's core, but it was a hum instead of a hiss.

Shroud debated with the two completely different opinions of the voices throughout Aodh trying to name him, but Shroud had paid no attention until Aodh had actually named him. He quickly nodded wanting to get out as soon as possible as Shroud had started to hear more Ghasts coming, most likely wondering what happened to the other two Ghasts.

He stared back at Aodh again after shifting his eyes around a bit looking for the Ghasts before realizing that Aodh looked like he was about to cry out. Aodh was clutching his side in what seemed to be agony which made Shroud feel a pang of disgust at how weak this minecraftian was.

"Now how 'about you show me to some where safe? I need to treat these burns of mine…" Aodh said with a hint of pain seeping through his voice.

Shroud stared a bit before looking around to see if he could find a small dent in the wall where the Ghasts couldn't follow them. Thinking to himself, Shroud decided him would help Aodh get out of the way and then leave him to fend for himself. Maybe that'll please both the voices.

"Hey, Shroud could you help me along, it's too hard for me to walk on my injured leg…?" Shroud's mind reeled at the thought of supporting Aodh on his shoulders as Shroud didn't like to be touched by anything and he made his point clear by hissing loudly with his eyes narrowed at Aodh who looked back at him shocked.

'Well, he shouldn't be too trusting of a stranger now should he?!' Shroud thought angrily to which he felt Voice nod his non-existent head and to which other voice face-palmed at the thought. He lowered his hiss into a low growl as Aodh gathered himself up after the sudden anger pointed at him.

"Sorry Shroud, didn't know it would displease you the help someone in pain, but if me and yer are going to move out quicker maybe helping out wouldn't be so bad?" Shroud huffed at Aodh since it was a good point.

'I'm already regretting helping this man out already…. Even if he gave me a name.'

**A/N: Sorry this came out a bit later than I thought, but school started so I'll be busy with that. Yeah well I hope you enjoyed this new chapter! **


	4. Ch3 Sick

Shroud hated his life so MUCH right now. Why? Well he finally was **'convinced'** after some very long minutes to help Aodh walk as the both of them looked for a safe or safer area. He huffed at the situation he had gotten himself in and also became tense whenever he saw the gleaming shine of the sharp object or weapon that Aodh carried all the time. So every few seconds Shroud's eyes kept darting towards Aodh's weapon, an iron sword by the name Old Faithful. Or at least that's what Shroud picked up from Aodh's endless rambling about who knows what.

Shroud occasionally listened into Aodh's never ending speech because sometimes something funny came out of his mouth and he would laugh at some of them. Once, apparently, he and a friend of his had gone into a cave and Aodh had dressed up as a creeper (_which the name made another flash of green appear Shroud's mind yet different from the first) _and scared the wits out of his friend.

But still Shroud only listened to a few of these as he continued to search for a good area to stop at and they had to stop soon because Aodh through his seemingly energized appearance and talk was definitely becoming exhausted from the walk.

The walk wasn't even quite that long either, around a bend or two and down a steep valley that stretch off into the distance. Something didn't add up quite right. Sure Aodh had a burn that scorched his back and left side, but although large it was only a light burn so why was he getting tired so fast. Maybe it had to do with the bad limp of Aodh's?

'_Well whatever the reason, we're going to have to stop in a bit.' _Shroud thought to himself as the ever subtle hate of Voice made itself known again. Shroud didn't know what to think anymore as the previous events befuddled his mind.

It started off the same as any day for him, waking up, eating some shrooms, scaring the skin off of the other mobs, more shrooms…

'_Just how could it change so fast?'_ Shroud thought to himself as both he and Aodh trudged on through the endless world known as the Nether. Shroud was also considering leaving Aodh to fend for himself once the both of them found a safe place to stay for a while.

He again felt Voice's presents as he seemed to nod to the idea while other voice seemed to look down upon him with shame.

'_Yet another thing that's added to the annoyingly long list of changes today…'_ Shroud pouted bitterly and amidst all his thoughts and concerns Shroud had yet to realize that he was practically carrying Aodh now instead of supporting him. Aodh was trying to get Shroud's attention and was near to the point of yelling loudly into Shroud's ears when Shroud mind finally clicked that he was dragging Aodh.

"Finally, you hear me lad! I've been trying to get your attention for quite bit of time." Aodh blurted out between his gasps for air. Shroud just looked at Aodh with a mixture of confusion and impatience at Aodh's lack of ability to keep up.

"Can we stop please? I feel like I'm going to drop dead from walking rather than from the mobs around us!" Shroud just scowled at Aodh really starting to believe now the he was a weak man. Also the place they had stopped at was not the best, but probably one of the worst areas to be in.

They were on one of the many ledges in the Nether, one that was facing into a lot of open space where Ghasts could easily roam around in. Although this ledge was not over lava like many others it was still a good fifty foot drop to the nether rack below and there was no way Aodh, and possibly Shroud, could survive the fall if it were to be blasted away.

Another reason why it wasn't a good area to stay was because there were only two exits, the way they came and a rather small and thin bridge of nether rack to a bigger ledge.

Unfortunately for Shroud, Aodh wasn't willing to move any further and had promptly collapsed on the ground. Least to say, Shroud was getting more annoyed and was now starting to hate his decision to help Aodh more and more.

'_Why had I even thought about helping in the first place anyway?'_ Shroud shook his head in annoyance as he watched Aodh continue to rest on the ground. Then, suddenly, Shroud noticed fine red lines zigzagging near Aodh's burns. Shroud swore he saw those marks before, but he could not recall from where as his memories were still clouded.

Aodh gently got up into a sitting position as Shroud thought about the strange marks. Aodh then reached into his pockets and starting pulling something out.

Shroud having seen the action had stepped back a little thinking Aodh was going to attack now completely forgetting about the marks. But instead Aodh had simply got out a stone tool used by many minecraftians all over the three realms. Shroud of course didn't remember what it was and was prepared to strike Aodh, but other voice sent out a wave of gentleness and even spoke a few words…

'_No need to harm the harmless…'_ Shroud was surprised to hear more words come from other voice since Shroud thought before both voices had become mute after the certain events. Though against Voice's silent cries for bloodshed, Shroud eased up and now stared curiously at the object that Aodh wielded.

"Tis be a stone pickaxe Shroud, it's good for digging through many different blocks like nether rack." Aodh explained simply to Shroud and then hobbled over to the one wall on the ledge. Aodh then proceeded to hack away at one of the blocks until it broke into a small rotating version of itself that could be picked up.

"Now you try Shroud." Aodh said as he tossed the stone pickaxe towards Shroud who caught it with ease yet surprised what Aodh had just performed. Shroud stared at the contraption in his hands critically and looked back up towards Aodh who was tapping the block just below the one he dug out.

"Hit this block right here Shroud." Aodh continued to point at the one block and soon Shroud uncertainly walked up to the block. Weighing the unfamiliar tool in his hands, Shroud slightly swung the pickaxe at the Nether rack seeing cracks appear before they disappeared. Growing a bit more confident, Shroud started to hit the Nether rack for longer and in a few moments shroud had mined the Nether rack.

Aodh was going to prompt Shroud to keep digging but it was no need as Shroud instantly mining away faster at the sound of a Ghast coming from the open space. More impressive was that Shroud even made the soon-to-be hiding hole wider instead of a narrow passage. Aodh had to get Shroud's attention to stop mining as it started to become a bit too large.

Shroud calmed down just as Aodh plopped down his crafting table and cauldron filled with water. Obviously Shroud was going to eye both new objects with suspicion, but more so with the water inside the cauldron. Shroud poked at the water as this was the first in a long time that he'd seen water. When he went to touch the water he shivered at the coldness of it and backed away from the water only to stare at it some more as he clutched the hand that was now cold as well.

Aodh thought the lad to be quite amusing and surprisingly minecraftian like despite his noticeable likeness in appearance to Wraiths.

'_Maybe he's both.' _Aodh thought as he continued to watch as Shroud crept towards the water again. Another thought flashed inside his mind remembering how Shroud had suddenly collapsed and screamed loudly when they first meet not even two hours ago…

'_Or was it just one hour ago?'_ Aodh mused before opening his mouth to ask his unanswered question. But the question never escaped past his lips as his leg gave out and he realized how drained of energy he was.

Seeing Aodh fall down out of the corner of his eye, Shroud's head whipped around to face the fallen man before briskly walking closer wondering what was going on. He sat down in front of Aodh and began assessing Aodh's wounds more narrowly than before. Again the burns only looked like first degree burns that have already begun to heal over. But the red lines Shroud noticed from before seemed to have spread more and seemed to be hindering the body's ability of healing the wounds.

Shroud ram sacked his mind trying to recall just what the red lines meant and how bad they were going to affect Aodh. It took some searching the back of his mind, but soon Shroud's eyes snapped open as a long forgotten memory emerged along with Voice's soundless cries of rage.

There was a young man running away, running as fast and far away from the many Ghasts chasing him. The man had nothing on him besides his tunic which hung loosely around his small frame. The only way to safety was across a field of soul sand and the man dashed into the soul sand trying to outrun the Ghast coming from behind.

The soul sand of course slowed the man down to a crawl and soon the Ghasts had caught up and starting firing away at the foreign being. The man dodged all the attacks until he got to the small hole in the wall which is when one of the Ghasts got lucky and landed a hit on the man's left arm and set fire to the soul sand. The man cried out as he pulled himself to safety and landing clumsily behind a protective wall of Nether rack.

The man looked at the burn on his border-lining pale skin. It was just a small burn, but as the soul sand extinguished itself, small particles of the sand landed on the burn making it sting worse than it already was. A few minutes go by before the man notices small, fine red lines forming near his burn and soon the man feels light headed and falls into a fitful, fevered sleep.

Shroud knew nothing else as he came back to reality and realized that the man was **himself** back before he even knew Voice and that whatever he got was dire and needed attention.

But as he looked back down towards Aodh who looked like on the verge of passing out, Shroud knew he didn't know how to stop the red lines or how to even slow them down to an extent.

In short, Shroud didn't know if Aodh was going to last another day without help…


	5. Ch4 fortress

Despite Shroud's previous somewhat helpful vision on how Aodh got so sick, he did not how to cure it. No matter how much he continued to search his no longer present memories, he couldn't recall anything else that would have been useful. He also didn't know what caused burned soul sand to give such nasty inflictions.

He slumped in despair down next to the now unconscious Aodh who shivered from what could only be a high fever. Although Shroud had wanted to depart from Aodh as soon as they had found safety, he couldn't now with his sort of forced companion so ill. Shroud sighed and started his persistent racking of his mind, but again he was at a loss.

Another thing that was bothering him was how he was even slightly willing to help this stranger he didn't even know much about. He didn't care about any other mob; person, no one and he'd rather just kill anyone who got in his way! This unknown kindheartedness towards Aodh who laid silently besides him just made Shroud want to tear off his own skin.

'_**I need to leave…' **_Shroud decided and quickly picked himself up and left the makeshift shelter. He would come back for sure, Shroud just needed to be away from Aodh for a bit to calm his nerves so he could think better.

And so Shroud wandered over to the other ledge connected by just a narrow nether rack bridge. He trudged on through the fire and flames and cursed at the soul sand whenever he passed by some. He found a new patch of soul sand and went on a heated rampage, clawing and destroying any he got his claws onto.

'_**This is your fault you ff-ing piece of aegfho! I could've left Aodh right about now!' **_Shroud ranted within his mind as more and more blocks of soul sand were destroyed into their smaller counterparts.

The mobs around him saw this and fled, fearing for their lives even though Shroud only felt like feverishly getting rid of all the soul sand. Shroud had been so furious at the soul sand that he nearly used his recently acquired fire attack on it. He snapped back into reality before this happened and just continued to curse and swear at the foul soul sand.

When he got much of his anger out, he sat down by some nearby mushrooms panting deeply from destroying so many soul sand blocks which now the smaller, floating versions littered the floor. He didn't care and picked up one of the red mushrooms and nibble a bit. Then he grabbed a brown one and nibbled on it as well.

As he was eating his mushrooms a miniature spark made a click noise in his mind. Something wasn't right and he paused and listened in-between his deep breaths. It was quiet at first, but then there was a partially fainted, scratchy sounding gasp towards the way he came.

But before he left to investigate, Shroud gathered all the mushrooms in the area for him and Aodh to eat later. Again, Shroud heard the gasp except more clearly and at once knew he had heard a Blaze.

'_**uh-oh… there's no way there's a fortress so close!'**_ But there was as Shroud found a gap that revealed a large Nether fortress with many Blazes's scouting the place for intruders. Shroud looked away and faced the direction he had been walking from only to see the hideout still in sight.

Blazes, unlike the Ghasts that attacked out of fear, would burn you to a crisp if you were even half way across the Nether from their beloved fortress. Shroud despised Blazes since they were pretty much the only mobs who didn't fear him in the slightest way.

Now Shroud was more angered and annoyed than when he left the hiding spot with such a close by fortress. When Aodh woke up they were finding a new spot that Shroud chose since Aodh's first choice was obviously a bad one.

Unluckily for Shroud who was still in his thoughts, One of the Blaze scouts had looked up and spotted him and burst into flames preparing to fire at the distracted Shroud.

Shroud's eyes widen as he finally noticed the Blaze who just launched his fire towards him. Shroud jumped back and barely dodged one blast. Another blast harmlessly smacked the side while the third flew through the gap and hit a disconnected pillar of netherack off to the right of Shroud.

Shroud turned his attention towards the Blaze who was starting to fly up, trying to get through the gap to him. Scanning quickly around looking for something to block up the gap with, Shroud eyes narrowed at the many blocks of soul sand that was still on the ground.

"_**Grrr… it'll have to do!"**_ Shroud thought as he glared at the soul sand. He dashed towards it and picked up only a little before returning to the gap and placing the blocks down in front of it.

The Blaze started charging up his flames again when Shroud realized two things…

One: He didn't have enough blocks to fill the opening completely and the Blaze was going to get through the gap before he could get more.

Two: Soul sand plus fire is a really bad thing and a really dim-witted thing to have used to fill the gap with.

So Shroud decided to do something he truly despised to do; He ran.

As Shroud started sprinting to the hideout, Voice started to soundlessly, but violently screech in Shroud's mind causing Shroud to stumble multiple times as his vision blurred. His foot caught the edge of one of the many blocks making him fall into a ditch just as the Blaze got through the opening. Shroud tensed and held his breath as he turned around and saw the Blaze looking around for him.

Somehow as the Blaze looked in Shroud's direction, he didn't see him and went back towards the fortress. Shroud continued to stay still until he was positive that the Blaze wasn't coming back. Voice was no longer screeching, though still mad, so Shroud could think and see clearly again.

He ended up in a small crater that was positioned at the right angle so that he could see out of it but no one could see him in it from a distance.

Shroud counted himself lucky and dragged himself to the hideout which was not too far away. As he entered he noticed that Aodh had awakened and was trying to stand up only to fail. Aodh caught sight of Shroud and seemed to relax.

"Thought you left me for good Shroud, so where'd ya been?" Aodh asked in his usual cheery mood and half-smirk. Shroud just glared at Aodh and pointed to the opening for the hideout and rasped sternly,

"**WE ARE LEAVING." **Aodh smile turned into a frown at the harshness in Shroud's tone and confused as to why Shroud wanted to leave so soon or at least what he believed to be soon. Shroud just continued to glare intensely at Aodh waiting for him to say something.

"Um.. why do yo-?" Aodh began to say only to be cut off by Shroud who guessed what Aodh was going to say.

"**FORTRESS TOO CLOSE!"** Shroud partially screeched towards the end. Aodh eyes widened upon finally realizing why Shroud wanted to leave right now for they were pretty much hiding out on a death trap. Only problem was that Aodh couldn't get up and was in no condition to travel. Still, he tried to get up again to leave only to slump back down in exhaustion.

"Shroud I can't move to leave, I'm sorry, but I'm just too drained to move." Aodh hung his head in shame as he finished speaking and only looked up when he felt the area around him suddenly get hotter than it was before.

Aodh stared in shock at what he was seeing. Shroud was engulfed in fire and looked ready to kill Aodh right then and there as his eyes glowed brightly when he narrowed them at Aodh. He looked like he was going to explode when a look of horror crossed his face and clutched his arms tightly around himself and doubled over in what looked to be an attempt hold the flames back.

Aodh saw Shroud shudder fiercely as he walked out of the hideout painfully slow. When Aodh couldn't see Shroud anymore did Shroud unleash his rage on anyone and everything. Many mobs who were curious of the hideout ran away with harsh burns criss-crossing just about every inch of themselves when Shroud caught sight of them.

Shroud grunted in pain as he wasn't used to having his flames be as powerful as they were now. Even scorching twenty Pigmen and two unsuspecting Ghasts didn't extinguish the fire within him. He scanned the area looking for something to get the rest of his anger out on. He saw nothing as the word quickly got out to avoid the area. No longer able to hold back the fire within, Shroud screeched in pain as all the pent up fire was expelled in one massive and destructive wave.

Shroud collapsed and was trying to breathe when he looked around and saw how much of the area he burned. Blocks closest to Shroud had actually been destroyed completely while blocks up to thirty blocks away were on fire. Shroud would've been impressed with himself if he didn't feel like he was going to faint.

Shroud nearly did pass out too, but he gathered himself up and slowly walked back to the hideout which was unharmed by his destruction. He never felt as weak before as he paused to try to steady his heavy breathing and nearly vomited on the spot, but he didn't and started to walk again to the hideout.

When he entered, Aodh was staring at him with fear and concern. Shroud would've been offended by his staring any other time, but he was too exhausted at the moment to care as he fell to his knees and blacked out before his head hit the ground.

/

Aodh watched as Shroud dragged himself in after a while and although Aodh was still afraid of what he had seen, he also felt worried as he saw his strange companion's eyes droop and his body shook with every slow step and heavy rasp. He was about to ask if he was alright when he collapsed to the floor and was instantly out.

Aodh sat there shocked before regaining his wits to check if Shroud hadn't hurt himself when he blacked out. It was hard to get himself up to check, but he finally managed to stand and cautiously hobbled to Shroud. Aodh thoroughly checked for any wounds, but sighed in relief when he found none.

He was still worried though as he had no idea what had just happened besides finding out that Shroud had some sort of fire power, but it seemed he had no control over it.

Aodh decided he would ask Shroud when he woke up. In the meantime, Aodh decided to check his supplies while he waited and how best to use them.

Of course he had his iron sword old faithful with him for protection, but he also had a few empty bowls, four buckets of water, some cobble stone, two glass bottles to drink water from, a used stone pickaxe, and eight slices of pork chops.

The bowl would come in handy when he ran out of the pork chops and the water could be used to bring down his fever which still was bad as ever, but not unbearable at the moment. He couldn't do much with his supplies so he decided he should get some sleep and check on Shroud later when they were both awake.

And so Aodh fell into a light, uneasy sleep waiting for Shroud to wake up from his deep, yet unrestful sleep.


	6. Ch5 Calm before the storm

Shroud slowly opened his eyes after quite some time had passed. Even after the long rest, Shroud whole body still ache from the over usage of his fire attack which was fueled to the extreme from all the frustrations of earlier.

Warily, Shroud got into a sitting position at which point he had to pause from the pounding headache. Once it stopped, he glanced around the entire hideout making sure nothing had gotten in while he slept. Satisfied that nothing was out of place Shroud looked towards Aodh who was asleep still and looked worst than before.

'_**Guess we're not leaving anytime soon…' **_ Shroud huffed in annoyance since if Aodh was worse than before, which he couldn't move then, so obviously he wasn't going to get up today.

As Shroud began to get up shakily, Aodh started to wake up looking incredibly tired with dark rings under his no longer bright eyes. Aodh turned his head towards Shroud with a confused look upon his features and before Shroud could even glare at Aodh's staring he spoke.

"Hey Shroud… yer okay from what happened earlier?" Shroud blinked and blinked again. He simply couldn't understand how Aodh could worry about him of all people when Aodh himself was in a much worse condition. Shroud shook his head trying to rid his mind of his thoughts that made his head hurt more and made a move to speak when his vision blurred again causing him to stumble before finding his footing again.

Aodh shook his head with an amused smirk before his stomach growl loudly. Both of them stopped for a second or two when Shroud opened his mouth to speak and that's when his own stomach growled its pleas for food. Shroud just paused before deciding to get out the mushrooms since it was obvious that both of them needed to eat.

As soon as he dug into his pockets, Shroud saw that Aodh had started looking in his too. Shroud shrugged, no longer fearing if Aodh was going to pull out some dangerous object.

But that didn't mean he'd let his guard down, no way…

Shroud found one of each type of mushrooms and was about to hand one to Aodh when he paused at what he saw.

Aodh was holding something that looked tan-ish and smelled wonderful. Shroud had to wipe off some unexpected drool from the corner of his mouth and then regaining his posture before Aodh could even see his reaction to the strange item. The back of his mind tingle for a few moments when he realized…or rather remembered that the item Aodh held was a type of food.

What was or what it was called Shroud didn't know but still it made his mouth water. Shroud had to restrain himself from breaking his usual front when he saw that Aodh had two of the items and was giving him one.

"Thought yer might want to have some of my pork chops," Aodh tiredly grinned as he spoke "probably better than what you have in your hand now." Shroud hesitantly reached out to take the item, still unsure rather to trust Aodh or not, but his hunger got the better of him and he decided to take his chances.

Despite wanting to wolf down the 'Pork chop' as Aodh called it, Shroud slowly looked it over making sure nothing was done to the food that could harm him. After thoroughly checking it over for a few seconds, Shroud decided to take a small bite out of it.

Shroud's eyes went wide at the taste of the pork chops. It was so much tastier than the bland taste of the mushrooms he ate on a constant basis.

A moment went by before Shroud started to rapidly devour the rest of the pork chop, all fatigue forgotten for the moment.

Aodh would've laughed at the sight before him if he didn't feel like he had twenty tons of blocks crushing every inch of him. He did though chuckle when his saw the disappointed, sad face Shroud made when he finished his pork chop.

"**Have more?" **Shroud bluntly asked, earning an amused smirk from Aodh before he answered.

"Yes I do have some more, but not a lot and I want to ration them carefully" Shroud's shoulders dropped, but he nodded his hooded head in understanding before he looked up again at Aodh.

"**Where from?" **Shroud questioned, though Aodh didn't know what Shroud directed the 'where from' at. Did Shroud mean where he was from or the pork chops?

"The pork chops or…?" Aodh unhurriedly replied earning a displease huff from Shroud who responded with an annoyed tone in his voice.

"**Where get pork chops from?" **Aodh shook his head again realizing that of course it was the pork chops Shroud wanted to know where they came from. Still, Aodh couldn't help but feel slightly upset that Shroud seemed to care more about the food than Aodh himself.

"a'course, they come from where I'm from, the Overworld also known as Minecraftia or the first realm. Yer can only get them there." Aodh answered anyway. Shroud tilted his head in thought and before Aodh could ask him anything Shroud spoke again, but the subject that Shroud spoke of caught Aodh off guard.

"**Find cure in…Overworld?" **Shroud almost silently said. Aodh stop for a moment trying to process Shroud's words in his mind.

'_Find cure…? Cure for my sickness? Well I guess Shroud really does care after all…'_ Aodh blinked a bit before trying to think if a cure existed that could help get rid of his aliment. Only one thing came to mind and that was a potion of healing, but it was difficult, life-threatening actually, to get all the needed materials.

"Well yes and no," Shroud face turned from determination to confusion as Aodh continued," Some items yer need to make the cure are in the Overworld, but the rest are found 'ere, in the Nether."

Shroud started to wonder just how many items he needed to get Aodh off his feat so he could defend himself. He also started to wonder if it was worth getting the unknown amount of items to make the potions.

Also, shroud had been curious how he had survived the sickness that he dubbed the 'soul sand virus'. He thought that he had the cure on him possibly and hearing of a different realm had him interested. It could explain a few other things like the vision of green he had when he first meet Aodh.

Anyway, he knew he had to ask Aodh what materials he needed, but Aodh beat him to the punched and what Shroud heard made his heart sink deeper and deeper.

'Yer need quite a few items, some of which can be dangerous to get… Yer need a brewing stand, made with three cobblestones and a blaze rod, bottles of water, Nether wart and the tear of a Ghast." Aodh listed off before catching his breath and continuing to talk.

"I have the cobblestone and the water, but not the other items." Aodh finished and looked up to see the slightly shocked appearance of Shroud who seemed lost in thought.

'… _**nether wart, blaze rod and the tear of a Ghast… all very deadly to get…. Is it WORTH IT?' **_Shroud amused to himself. Of course Voice complained most likely about how he shouldn't risk his neck for a stranger though Shroud still couldn't hear him. Other voice seemed to encourage Shroud, but he also seemed to be warning him of the dangers.

Shroud didn't want to risk his neck, but some long forgotten part of him wanted to help Aodh badly. Shroud couldn't understand why he was doing any of this for a complete stranger, but despite his logic of staying as far away (most of the time) from things he couldn't defeat easily, he was going to get the items needed.

Shroud nodded planning to get the items as soon as possible and was about to leave before his exhaustion from the over use of his fire ability took hold of him again. He wavered on his unsteady legs before slumping to the wall, sliding down next to Aodh.

Shroud sighed as he placed a hand to his head wanting the fogginess to go away. He looked to Aodh who seemed to be looking through his stuff again before pulling something out.

It was brown in color and looked like it could hold something in it. Shroud watched as Aodh pull out another before asking Shroud something.

"Can you give me some of the mushrooms you have? I want to show yer somethin' it's called mushroom stew and its a'course somethin' yer can eat." Shroud decided he could use a bit more food and nodded his head for Aodh to continue while he himself rested. He was going to need all his strength to get the materials later on.


	7. Ch6 Fights and Brawls

After some stew to quench their hunger for a while and some well needed rest did Shroud feel just as about as ready as he'd ever get even if he was still slightly sore. Shroud knew it was going to be a challenge to get the materials needed especially with attacks he had. He had his claws and _**maybe**_ his fire ability which he wasn't sure if the latter was going to work anymore after his freak-out moment. Shroud shudder unintentionally at the thought of what had to face soon.

To get a Ghast tear he, of course, had to kill a Ghast. Shroud had a hard time before laying even a scratch on them since they liked to float around in very spacious areas over _**lava**_ and they were immune to pretty much all fire damage. So even if Shroud fire ability was a-okay, it would be useless.

Then Shroud needed to get a Blaze rod from one of the many Blazes who guard the fortresses scattered across the Nether and they too were immune to fire since, of course, they are made fire themselves. They are also much more aggressive than the Ghasts and would fight to the death until any threat was dead themselves. Another bad part to entering their fortress was the fact Shroud had to go deep into it to find the final ingredient… Nether wart.

Shroud huffed in early defeat at the daunting tasks ahead of him that he didn't know why he was doing any of it in the first place. But he was going to do it anyway to help Aodh so he could leave him to defend for himself. Though, as Shroud got ready to face his challenges ahead, Aodh tapped his knee to get his attention, still unable to stand to tap his shoulder.

"Yer can't just tackle your challenges with your fists and fire Shroud, here; let me show you how to use my sword…" Aodh wheezed out as Shroud stared curiously at him and his iron sword. Aodh was a strange man to Shroud, offering his only protection to him to help Shroud further.

Shroud nodded anyway, believing whatever he could get from him would help finish his tasks quicker to save the ever weakening Aodh. Shroud inwardly winced at how horrible weak Aodh was now… even if he did seemed to have infinite energy when blabbing away. Aodh's condition made Shroud wonder if he had been that weak when he got the strange illness, too.

Moving on, it was difficult at first to use the sword, Old Faithful, since Aodh couldn't stand to show the proper way to hold and wield the iron sword. Soon though, Shroud could swing it decently often and he got a wicked smile on his face when Aodh told him he could deflect the Ghast's fire back at them. Aodh got a little nervous when he saw Shroud's grin and hoped he didn't plan and doing anything insane.

Though as Shroud thought about smacking the Ghasts with their own attacks something made him wonder…

'_How can their FIRE attacks hurt them when they're immune to FIRE attacks…?'_ Shroud just mentally shrugged thinking he could ask Aodh later if he lasted. At that moment, Shroud step out the 'door' which was merely a two block gap in a wall and began his search for the items.

Shroud looked slowly to the left towards the way they came from before and then to the right to the area where he found the Nether fortress before. For a few moments of thinking and a bit of listening made Shroud decide to go look for a Ghast first. Shroud thought it would be the best way to go since he didn't want to alert the Blazes and have them chase him forever.

But then again, Shroud could simply get some Nether rack and block up the gap, though Shroud didn't know if there was another exit to the fortress or not.

Shroud growled to himself for taking even just a few seconds to think about _**every **_possible flaw in his plans and with a whim, dashed off to the left, hoping to find an open space with Ghasts NOT floating over lava.

It was only when Shroud had ran around several corners did he realize he had to mark his way or he'd lose his bearings and never find Aodh again.

'_**Or you can just abandon him now…'**_ Shroud nearly whip-lashed himself in surprise as he rapidly turned his head around in every direction. Soon though, he to realize that it was just Voice talking to him again. But Shroud still could not comprehend how Voice and other voice could randomly speak at times when they mostly just sent silent emotions to him. Well then again Voice could speak before just not now since other voice showed up.

Even through his confusion on the voices, Shroud did wonder if he should just abandon Aodh now. Again though, that small spark of whatever-it-was made Shroud continue otherwise. This didn't mean however that Shroud didn't want to tear his mind out and have another fire-fit, IF he could have a fire-fit. Not knowing where this sense of duty to Aodh was coming from maddened Shroud to the extremes.

Shroud didn't like not knowing things especially if he kept them from himself.

'_I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW YOU DO THAT!' _Shroud frustratingly reflected only to snap out of his inner thoughts when he heard a Ghast in the distance. He looked around a bit trying to get his bearings again and remembered that he had to mark his way. His solution was to place down two mushrooms pointing in the direction of the hideout.

The red mushroom would point away and the brown would point towards the hideout.

Shroud smirked before turning around and started searching for the Ghast that he had heard. He had just turned around a tight corner when he heard the high-pitched scream of a Ghast attacking. Shroud had jumped back around the corner as the blast smashed where he was just a few nanoseconds before.

Shroud put a hand over his racing heart and once he had calmed down enough did he steal a glimpse around the now smaller corner. Nothing could be seen, but Shroud could certainly hear the Ghast nearby.

Even after so long, the Ghasts still feared Shroud and would attack him on sight unlike with other creatures of the Nether.

So it was no surprise to Shroud as he moved back into the open space to hear the battle cry of the Ghast again. Though, this time a blast did not come giving Shroud a few precious seconds to locate the still unseen Ghast.

Turns out the Ghast was stuck behind a large over-hang and couldn't get into the smaller area in which Shroud was in. Shroud took off at a sprint towards the Ghast who was trying to maneuver around the over-hang to get a shot at him.

Shroud had nearly gotten into close enough range to start hacking and slashing away. Unluckily, the Ghast had had a moment of intelligence and blasted away the area that was blocking its path instead of continuing to blunder around the overhang.

What the Ghast hadn't expected after it had cleared the way and shot at Shroud was for its own blast to come bouncing back.

The Ghast dodged just in time and down below it one could hear the curses of Shroud. Shroud was still new with the iron sword he wielded and hadn't anticipated the blast to be as hard to hit back and had hurt his wrist.

He had no time to nurse his sprained wrist as the Ghast sounded off another attack which blew up into a pit of flames just inches to the left of Shroud. By the time the Ghast launched a third shot. Shroud was ready and was able to smack back the fire charge at the Ghast.

This went on for several minutes as Shroud tried to hit the Ghast with its own attack, but the Ghast kept moving out of the way and it was getting harder for Shroud to hit back as his injured wrist started to shake trying to even whole up the sword.

But despite his weakening wrist, Shroud's aim was improving as more of the fire charges were getting closer and closer to hitting home.

The Ghast was firing yet another attack, but when its head hit the ceiling of what was left of the overhang it knew it wasn't going to be able to get away in time.

Shroud saw this and a wicked grin stretched across his face at the thought of finally seeing the annoying Ghast die. With a strong swipe of Old Faithful, the fire charge hurled to the doomed Ghast and exploded right between its eyes killing it in one blow.

The insane smile of Shroud's didn't leave as he began to move towards the ground below where the Ghast had died searching for the tear. To see the Ghast explode into nothing just overdosed Shroud's thrill of revenge since that Ghast were always a problem to him.

So thrill was Shroud that he actually started to skip and laugh darkly soon enough until he found the tear which was where he thought it would.

As he reached down to grab the tear, however, pain enter his features causing his crazed smile to fall because of the pain in his wrist.

Shroud pulled his injured hand back before using the good hand to pick up the tear. Just as he was pocketing the tear and about to examine his hurt hand did Shroud hear the cries of more Ghasts curious to know what had happened.

He wasted no time and fled back towards the hideout having already gotten what he came for. Problem was trying to navigate back to the hideout since Shroud had only put one marker down. And so Shroud had to take many twists and turns before he found the right path which left him just a little bit tired out from all the walking.

As the hideout came into view, Shroud couldn't wait to rest up for a few minutes and get his last two tasks over with. He also wanted to get a proper look at his wrist to make certain it was okay enough for his next tasks.

Soon though as he neared the entrance, Shroud went tense with unease. He didn't know why, but he felt like there was some danger nearby and Shroud had learned to trust his instincts when he got a bad vibe.

Shroud decided to run the rest of the way back to make sure everything was all right.

He got to the entrance in a short time span,but what he saw inside made his blood rise to a boiling point from sheer rage.

Towering over a defenceless Aodh was a Pigman with a terrible burn on his back and he had slashed Aodh on one of his arms causing him to bled freely.

Shroud recognised the pigman from the ledge they had fought on a while ago and instantly regretted his decision on letting him live after their brawl.

The inner rage of Shroud's became known as a deep and ear-shattering roar sounded from him and caused the pigman to spin around in shock since he didn't know Shroud was there. And let's just say...

Shroud had some unfinished slaughtering to do.


	8. Ch7 Rematch

**A/N Not sure if i should put a warning up since this chapter has some violence, but hey go right ahead if you want! :D  
**

Shroud's roaring had caused the scarred Pigman to twist around and had in the grand scheme of things prevented the Pigman from delivering the final blow that would have ended Aodh. Least to say, the Pigman was terrified and hadn't expected Shroud to be back so soon.

The Pigman had saw Shroud going in and out of the hideout for a while and had heard rumors that the monster of the Nether was actually helping someone. He needed to know for sure if the rumors were true and had finally decided to take a peek.

What he saw made him slightly surprised since he had fully expected the rumors to be lies and slander. This emotion immediately gave way to another; rage. And with rage the Pigman wanted revenge for the fallen Pigman that Shroud had murdered and for leaving the burn scar on his back.

An eye for an eye was what the Pigman had thought and seeing Shroud again he knew that decision could end his life.

Shroud charged intent on ripping the familiar Pigman to pieces for harming Aodh. This move wasn't what the Pigman had predicted having been waiting for a burst of fire to come his way and got a set of deep claw marks to his left shoulder because of that thinking.

In his rage, Shroud had forgotten about Aodh's sword for awhile as well as his injured wrist as he hacked away at the terrified Pigman who squealed in shock. He would've continued to tear into the Pigman with his sharp claws if said mob hadn't recovered from his initial surprise and swung his gold sword up and then down, slicing a decent cut into Shroud's arm.

This made Shroud parried backwards as another swing approach near his neck. Shroud checked his cut quickly noting it was on the same arm as his injured wrist. He also remembered Old Faithful that clung between a leather strap and his back.

Shroud moved out of the way again as yet another deadly swing sliced through the air that had managed to get a small bite on his cheek.

Before the next attack from the Pigman could be let loose, Shroud pulled out Aodh's iron sword a swung it hard at the Pigman's midsection meaning to cut him into two. The Pigman being skilled with a sword dodged and got into a defensive stance. Shroud saw his foe eye the iron sword with a cold, unreadable face before launching an attack towards Shroud's feet.

Shroud jumped over it, but realized his mistake in doing so as the Pigman continued his swing in a 360 movement and hit Shroud painfully in the thigh.

Landing on two feet was nearly impossible with one injured and yet Shroud didn't fall over as his wounded leg shook with effort to hold his weight. Not waiting to give him a break, the Pigman swung again and Shroud blocked the sword causing his wrist to complain under the pressure of the force of the gold sword.

Shroud managed to push the sword back and launch his own attack which nearly gave the Pigman a fatal wound. Still the fight continued and in the process Shroud had inched his way between the Pigman and Aodh making sure the Pigman wouldn't take Aodh as hostage.

It didn't seem to matter as Shroud knew he was losing the fight being outmatched in terms of skills with sword-fighting. In the deepest parts of his mind he heard Voice laugh and mock at his weakness and just for a second Shroud thought he saw cruel, soulless eyes stare back at him within the blackness of his mind.

Shroud, angered by Voice's cruelity, gained a new burst of energy and whipped Old Faithful so hard and so fast that when the Pigman tried to block it, his gold sword nearly split-ed into two pieces. Still that blow made the sword completely useless.

The Pigman stood wide-eyed for a second at what had happened before receiving a blow to his side. With no weapon and plenty of deep wounds from the iron sword and Shroud's claws made the Pigman make a run for it knowing that to fight any longer would mean death for certain.

That Pigman would've been dead had he not hit Shroud in the thigh eariler. So even though Shroud wanted the mob dead more than anything at the moment, he could not as he soon realized when his damaged leg finally gave out and he collapsed on his hands and knees.

The sign of weakness from Shroud didn't fazed the Pigman out of his flight and was soon gone from sight after a few moments.

With his adrenaline rush running out, Shroud could feel all the near blinding pain from his various wounds. He also felt weak inside since being this hurt hadn't happened in a long time and even with his victory, he felt the laugh of Voice who had grown so cruel to Shroud in a short time.

But soon other voice drowned out Voice's cruelty and seemed to give Shroud some strength just enough to make him think clearly.

He needed to see if Aodh was still alive and treat both of their many wounds. At first, it looked as if Aodh had passed away during the fight, but Shroud pushed through his mourning thoughts to be sure. Turns out Aodh was still alive, but barely and so Shroud started to assess the wounds.

Aodh only had two wounds, two extremely deep and terrible wounds. the first was a deep gash on one of Aodh's arms as he tried to defend himself in a feeble attempt. the other was a slightly more shallow than the first but it was at a more softer spot near Aodh's neck.

Shroud was frantically looking for something to dress the wounds in, but found nothing. That is until Shroud decided to rip off parts of his dark grey pants. Some of his parts of his pants were already bloody, but Shroud didn't care as he quickly bandaged the wounds.

After Aodh had been treated did Shroud then treat his own nasty wounds. By the time he finished wrapping his own wounds his full length pants had become grey shorts barely noticeable under Shroud's white robes that really needed to be cleaned.

Once he made sure both of them were okay for the time being, Shroud then tiredly took two of Aodh's many cobble stone blocks and blocked the two block high entrance, making sure nothing got in to harm either of them. Shroud then slumped down next to Aodh, sleep drawing near even as he looked at the already dark red makeshift bandages on both of them.

Shroud didn't have the strength to change them though and was slowly, but surely falling asleep.

Somehow as weak as Shroud was from all the fighting , he carefully pulled out the Ghast tear from his pocket and gave a sad smile at the item Aodh badly and now he himself would need almost as much.

**"I'll s-save you, I'll save both o-of us... And we can get out of h..ere to that green place of yours... I promise Ao-d..." **Shroud mumbled out without thinking as the darkness finally took over. And all the way through his sleep the other voice sung a gentle tune to keep the harshness and pain of the world away as well as Voice who glared at the sleeping figures in the darkest shadows of the Nether.


	9. Ch8 Trespassing

Shroud had a long rest after he passed out, but still every part of him ached and groaned as he finally awoke to another start of a "day" of the forever unchanging realm of the Nether. It was challenge at first to get up and do anything simple like moving his legs. minutes ticked by but still he managed to get up and take in his familiar surroundings in the hideout.

Crafting table in the right corner near the exit and the cauldron in the opposite corner of the table. Everything else in the hideout was just nether rack; the floor, the ceiling, and the all four walls.

Shroud yawned at the boring safe house before wincing when he put weight on his bad leg as he moved to check up on Aodh who was still out cold. The makeshift bandages wrapping around both their wounds where all soaked thoroughly red and in desperate need of a change. Problem was that Shroud had nothing left to re-dress the injuries in and didn't know where to get more in the Nether.

He thought about it and only came to the conclusion to ask the other mobs, but hardly any of them would help and would probably make their situation worse if they acted like the one Pigman from eariler.

Sighing, Shroud decided to unwrap the bandages to at least see if the wounds had stopped bleeding.

As he was unwrapping them, Shroud had paused and realized he didn't need new cloth to wrap the wounds in. He stared at the cauldron filled with water and smirked since he remembered something from Aodh's endless rabble. It was that leather or other soft fabrics could be washed and cleaned in water.

And that's what Shroud did; he took all the bandages and scrubbed them clean with the water in the cauldron. The bandages came out as clean as he could get them, which wasn't very much since the blood stained deeply, and placed them down on the nether rack which dryed the cloth instantly.

After that he took one piece of cloth and made it wet and begun cleaning all the wounds to get a better look at them. For the most part, all of the wounds on both of them had stopped bleeding or were just trickling a bit.

He re-wrapped all the wounds Shroud deemed worthy of some treatment. For Aodh this was the wound near his neck and for Shroud it was his sprained wrist, the cut on the same arm as the injured wrist, and his thigh that still had him walking slowly and carefully.

Shroud picked up the Ghast tear he had retrieved yesterday and placed it in one of Aodh's pockets not wanting it to become lost when he finally goes to fight one of the Blazes in the fortress later on.

He takes the stone pickaxe which is half-way done and breaks down the cobblestone blocking the exit. Shroud places down the cobblestone blocks again in the exit to prevent any other mob from getting in and possible killing off Aodh for sure this time.

Sighing in anxiousness, Shroud walks to the right of the hideout towards the area where he first saw the fortress a while ago. He gets to the entrance and readies his exhausted body to start fighting an army of Blazes.

He jumps in front of the entrance and stares in utter bufflement at what he sees...

Nothing, not one living soul roaming around the deserted looking fortress. It was eerie to see it look so empty, but Shroud shook it off finding this the perfect moment to get the Netherwart and not have to deal with the usual abundent amounts of guards.

Shroud takes the pickaxe and starts making a staircase down towards the massive fortress. He had only once before step on the nether brick of a fortress and that had ended with him getting a fire ball to the face. So he took each painful step warily, expecting a Blaze scout to come out of any corner.

It took some time and loads of backtracking to find the room where the Blazes grew the netherwart. Shroud sighed in relief at not having to fight on legions of Blazes while in his current state. He grab a few and pretty much flew out of the room in a rush to get back to Aodh.

A rough gasp was heard and Shroud immediatly took cover behind one of the nether brick walls. It sounded distant and so Shroud peeked his head around the corner to see if there was any sign of the Blaze in the direction he heard the sound came from.

Nothing... and yet he continued to hear it close by, not coming closer, but not moving away either.

Shroud hestianted before going to explore the area for the lone Blaze. It wasn't long before he saw the Blaze and all the rest of the guards in the distant, far enough away so he couldn't hear them. Shroud cronched and edged closer to see what was happening.

It look like it was a meeting of some sorts and the Blaze he had heard seemed to be the leader of the meeting from what Shroud could tell. But Shroud felt an air of excitement amongst the Blazes as if they where waiting for something to happen.

And indeed something happened as from one of the corners came a figure cloaked head-to-toe in black with an army of... something following closely behind him.

Interested, Shroud remained where he was wondering who this strange person was with an army marching into a fortress. The cloaked figure soon spoke in a loud and booming voice so that all the Blaze could hear.

**"Greetings to all you proud Blazes of the Nether! I have come here to request... or rather give you something to better arm your forces!" **All the Blazes gathered around turn to one and another and appeared to be whispering, but Shroud couldn't tell and focused back on the strange figure in the center.

**" -I give you an ARMY! May the pests known as the Minceraftians never step foot in your fortress again!" **A raspy cheer rose from the Blazes, so loud that Shroud could actually hear them now.

**"These new recruits to your fortress are called the Wither Skeletons and with Herobrine's gifted power, made them stronger and better swordsmen than the pigmen will ever be!"** Now an even louder roar from the Blazes could be heard and Shroud swore the blocks all around him shook as he crouched a bit lower.

**"Now will you accept these newly created mobs or will you have them sent away and have your fortress less armed than it would be with them?" **Silence and expectance fell like gravel amongst the Blazes as they turned to the leader in the center. The Blaze made a rasp and a group of six Blazes came down. It seemed that despite the crowd's ethusiam to have the Wither Skeletons join, the leader was not sure and had called up his council of sorts.

Everyone waited quietly as the council of Blazes whispered and voted for or against the offer. Shroud was shaking slighty from anxiety to get out now and staying to see the end of the meeting. The Blazes in the center nodded their heads and turned back to the stranger.

**"We'll acrraascept Follower, but ifff these new mobss shall not lissraasspen then theeey will feel ourraa wraith."** The leader replied and in all honesty Shroud had never heard a Blaze speak in another language so was slightly shocked before continueing to listen in on the converastion. Unbeknownst to Shroud a late Blaze was just rounding the corner on his side.

**"Then by all means you may have the your new allies now and if they rebel they'll have to deal with you and me both." **It was then that the late Blaze saw the eavesdropping Shroud and made a rasp of surprise. Shroud heard the rasp and wiped around before drawing his blade and glared menacingly right at the newcomer.

The late Blaze made a warning rasp to alert the whole fortress, but Shroud stopped him before he could finish with a swipe of Old Faithful which clanked loudly against one of the Blaze's many floating rods.

After Shroud's attack the Blaze started to prepared to attack with the fire surrounding it. Shroud knew better than to wait and quickly despatched the Blaze before he could even use its attack. When Shroud had finished killing off the rather disapointingly easy oppopent, he picked up one of the blaze rods and stuffed it his pockets.

But Shroud was not out of danger yet for his battle had not gone unseen by the rest of the Blazes on the other side or the ones below. All at once they screeched 'TRESPASSER!' in their tongue and made a mad dash towards 's eyes widen at how many there truely where and saw the ones below start to float towards him too.

What's worse was that the Wither Skeletons were making their way to him as well and if they were really as good as the stranger said, Shroud stood no chance against them.

Wisely yet angerily Shroud ran away to the exit, bitterly reflecting that he was running away yet again in a short amount of time. As he was sprinting away, Shroud turned his head to see how far away the two armies of mobs were. They were still a ways away, but confusion spread across Shroud's face at something odd.

Two figures; the stranger and the leader Blaze were motionless in the center where they were before. They were talking about something and the leader Blaze surprisely pounced at the stranger who side-stepped out of the way and simply made the Blaze vanished to who-knows-where.

Shroud decided to muse over what he saw later as he remembered he was still running away, But not before the stranger looked right at Shroud and his eyes chilled him to the very core of his being.

Cruel and soulless under the blackness of his hooded cloak...

This made Shroud dash all the more faster as he recongnized that face at last, but he had to get out as fast as he could first.

He had gotten to the stairs he had made when the first Blazes caught up to him with the rest following closely behind. Pulling out Old Faithful to block their fire was his plan but was difficult when fifthy balls of fire were headed right for him at the same time.

He made it to the top and pulled out all the nether rack from his pockets he had gotten from making the staircase down to the fortress and rapidly started to cover up the gap to prevent the whole army from getting out to him.

This time he covered it up in time just as one Blaze had gotten two blocks away from the entrence. He backed off from the filled gap and stopped to catch his breath as he placed a hand over his racing heart.

It was a close call and Shroud wanted to really leave the area now after what had happened.

Which would soon be possible now that Shroud had all the items he needed to cure Aodh from his afflictions. And inspite of him disliking Aodh at first, he was now glad he had meet him for if it weren't for Aodh, Shroud would have never have known about the mysterious man with the lacking soul in his white gleaming eyes...


	10. Ch9 New Problems

It was a few seconds after Shroud had closed the gap before he started to make his way back to the hideout. He didn't even look back as the Blazes and Wither skeletons started to bang loudly against the Nether rack in an attempt to break it down. Yet, Shroud still got a scare and ran faster, not because of the mobs but rather what he saw ahead of him.

The man wrapped in the dark cloak from before was standing besides the entrance with a diamond pick in his hands. He had already mined out one of the cobblestone blocks and was close to breaking the other.

Panic-ed, Shroud raced forward at his top speed and drew out Old Faithful, preparing to fight the man before him.

The cloaked man had finished mining out the last block when Shroud swung the iron sword at him. It never hit home though, for the man vanished as the sword's blade neared. He even waved with an sinister grin at Shroud before leaving suddenly.

Shroud went wide-eyed to pissed off at his foe and his antics as the blade sliced through air instead of flesh. Then, in Shroud's mind, he heard Voice start to chuckle before full-blown laughing started getting louder and louder as the seconds ticked by.

It was only for a few seconds though before the laughter faded, but it left Shroud shaking as well as other voice as far as Shroud could tell. He scanned the area quickly still on edge before making a move into the hideout.

What he saw inside caused Shroud to breath a sigh of relief for everything was still where it was before when he left a little bit ago. Even Aodh would still laid slumped and out cold near the crafting table.

Shroud walked over to Aodh and fished out the other ingredients needed from his ill ally's pocket. This included the cobblestone, the two glass bottles, and the tear he had placed there earlier.

As he began to move towards the crafting table, Shroud's injuries made themselves known causing him to stumble and accidentally drop one of the glass bottles which smashed into pieces on the ground.

Shroud huffed in anger before making sure he had a better grip on the other items as he forced his bad leg to keep going.

Once he got to the table did he pause in thought and confusion. Shroud realized then that he didn't know how to make a brewing stand or how to make a potion in general. And with Aodh out of it Shroud was going to have to figure it out himself.

Shroud decided to sort the items out first to decide which seemed the most likely to be used for the brewing stand. He knew the bottle was for later and keep it to the side out of the way. Shroud also figured that the cobblestone was used to make the brewing stand, but he didn't know in what order or how many to use.

The worst to sort out though was with the tear, the Nether wart, and the Blaze rod since they all looked like they could be ingredients yet one was to make the stand. So in the end, he tested with all three and made different combinations with them and the cobblestones.

Least to say, it took a long time and during it Shroud got more and more frustrated and nervous. Frustrated because there were so many different combinations and nervous because he was wasting time that could be used to get out of the area.

In-between his growing anger and nervousness, Shroud thought a lot. About the man who could somehow teleport and looked like the man from his vision during the rematch with the Pigman. And also about Aodh, Voice and the other voice.

His thoughts broke though when he finally managed to make the brewing stand. He nearly shouted out with untold joy, but his injuries protested against the idea so he settle with a big smirk plastered on his face.

Shroud plopped the stand down near the water-filled cauldron before taking out the glass bottle and filling it with water. It seemed obvious enough to Shroud that the potion would need water. He then placed the bottle onto the stand before yet again pausing.

This time Shroud didn't know which order to brew the two ingredients in. Nether wart first or the Ghast tear first. Shroud stood there uncertainly trying to guess which would be first. But his patience was running out quickly having spent it on making the stand. So on a whim, he decided he would brew the tear first then the Nether wart.

It was a 50-50 percent chance that it would work or it would fail and if it failed Shroud knew he would be fighting off thousands of pissed off Blazes which he would dread to do.

Shroud hesitated still unsure, but the delay turn out for the good because at that moment Aodh started to wake. His vision was a bit blurry so he didn't instantly recognize Shroud who was still by the stand, unaware that Aodh had awoke up.

So Aodh reached for his sword only to find it not where he usually put it, only to slap himself a few seconds later when he remembered he gave to Shroud.

Shroud heard the sound of the slap and spun around and saw Aodh with his hand on his head. Aodh gasped when he realized that the 'intruder' had seen him, but when his vision cleared he felt dumb when he saw the other person was Shroud.

Shroud stood where he was a little confused at Aodh, though he was relieved that his ally was moving again.

With Shroud staring at him, Aodh was trying to think of something to say when he noticed the brewing stand and the two items that Shroud held.

"You... got the items?," Aodh said slowly still trying to fully awake up, "Need any help making the potion Shroud?" Shroud smiled and pointed to the items he had in his hands.

**"Yea I don't know how to make the potion."** Shroud admitted quietly and was then guided by Aodh on how to make the potion. When he realized he had nearly messed up by adding the tear first, Shroud face-planted his head on the wall at his stupidity.

Soon the potion of healing was done and Shroud picked it up and practically skipped over to Aodh who was still sitting by the crafting table.

As Shroud came closer Aodh noticed that Shroud only had one bottle when he could have made two. Soon after this amusing Aodh looked to his left and saw scattered pieces of glass.

_"well at least I know it broke..."_ Aodh turned back to face Shroud who was now sitting in front of him with the potion held out expectantly. Aodh was grateful to have met Shroud, but he felt bad that he had bothered Shroud to help him so much.

Aodh was about to take the potion when he finally came to see how badly damaged Shroud was. Cuts and bandages covered Shroud on nearly every part of him and when Aodh took a look at himself he noticed he had only one big crude bandage wrapped around his chest. He then remembered that strangely aggressive Pigman and realized Shroud must have taken the Pigman on and gotten hurt.

"Sorry Shroud, but... you deserve that potion more than me. you worked so hard for it and-" Aodh spoke, but was cut off from Shroud who pretty much shoved the potion into Aodh's hands. For Shroud, he didn't care how many cuts and bruises he had as long as he could walk. Since Aodh could not walk, Shroud wanted him to have it so that they could leave.

**"Just drink it."** Shroud growled at Aodh who still felt guilty. Aodh handled the bottle carefully looking downcast, but Shroud's glared told him not to argue and so he drank.

Even before Aodh was done, he felt the potion go to work as the wounds started to disappear and his usual energy came back. He grinned childishly after he finished and nodded his thanks to Shroud who had lost the tense in his posture.

Aodh had began to unwrap his bandages when he noticed Shroud had regained the tenseness and saw he was glancing nervously in all directions. Aodh was about to ask what was wrong, but Shroud spoke first.

**"Can you walk? we need to leave this place..."** Aodh gave Shroud a questioning look before attempting to stand for the first time in a while. He succeeded in standing up and took a few baby steps to test his stiff legs. The potion had done its job and Aodh was glad since he hadn't felt good for a few 'days'. Still he was worried by Shroud's nervousness.

"I can walk, but why are yer in such a hurry?" Aodh asked to which he received another glare from Shroud, but Shroud calmed down and gave a more gentle looked after a few moments.

**"Dangerous man with white glowing eyes, he tried to get into the hideout." **Shroud replied and looked down at the ground in disgust. When he didn't hear Aodh say anything he looked up again to see Aodh thinking.

"white glowing eyes? Did he... do anything strange or say he was from anywhere, Shroud?" Aodh mumbled the first bit as he got out of his thinking and stared curiously at Shroud. Shroud blinked for a moment in thought before answering.

**"Yes he did. I saw him teleport away when I tried to attack him. He didn't say where he was from... but he mentioned a guy called 'Herobrine' and gave an army of a new type of mob to the Blazes."** Shroud looked back to Aodh who had become shocked and nervous too.

"Herobrine..?! oh no... i see why you want to leave now. that man, if you can call him that, is nothing but bad news. And the man you saw was a Follower of Herobrine whom is equally as bad as the man himself." Aodh paused for a second, catching his breath before continuing on.

"The Follower you saw is just a puppet of a person just like all the other Followers. I know you meet a Follower since all Followers have white glowing eyes just like Herobrine himself. They call it a gift or a sacred mark of their lord, but it is really just Herobrine's way of controlling them and uses them to spy on different places at once." Aodh finished his monolog with Shroud looking rather surprised that Aodh knew all this.

**"Can they... do other strange things besides teleporting and being spies?"** Shroud asked curiously. He wanted to confirm one of his suspicions.

"Well they can do many things depending on what Herobrine gives them, but the most common are great speed, teleportation, ridiculous strength, distortion, and the ability to change people into mobs over time. I don't really know how they turn Minecraftians into mobs, but i heard some stories from some people who fought back the change and they said they had someone in their mind speaking to them, luring them away from-" Aodh continued talking, but Shroud had stopped listening.

His suspicions were correct; he couldn't believe it, but they were. Voice was the cloaked Follower.

**VVVVV**

**A/N Happy new year to everyone reading this! Hope you guys enjoy my story so far :)  
**

**Also I have some special news; I will be accepting OCs for this story though for what i won't say. Just PM me your character's Name, age, likes/dislikes, personality and a short background story if possible.  
**

**And if you don't have an OC you can still help me by suggesting names.  
**

**see ya later viewers :D  
**


	11. Ch10 Overworld

Aodh had continued to drone on about the different abilities that the Followers could use and then on to other things making Shroud tapped his shoulder to stopped the endless flow of words coming out of an re-energized Aodh. He grinned sheepishly when he realized Shroud had become annoyed with his rambling.

Aodh quickly apologized to Shroud before the two of them started to gather the few belongings. Though grateful for being able to leave finally, Shroud was still on edge and constantly making sure he wasn't hearing any voices besides his and Aodh's.

Shaking his head, Aodh packed the crafting table as his thoughts wandered back to the news of the Follower. It had been a while since he had last seen one of them and he didn't want to have another encounter right now.

Aodh had also noticed the way Shroud had seemed...eager... nervously eager to know the powers the Followers could possess. This bothered Aodh because even with the short time he was with Shroud, He knew that Shroud hardly pays attention to his words unless Shroud found them important.

Like with what ingredients Shroud needed to find to make the potion or when Aodh quickly taught Shroud the basics of sword fighting.

He looked back at Shroud again who was just removing the water from the cauldron when Aodh felt like he had just been harshly slapped across the face by Notch himself.

Aodh had been so out of it before that he hadn't realized that Shroud was probably one of many who was mislead by the Followers and had been slowly turning into a mob.

It did explain why Shroud looked like a mix of a Wraith and a Minecraftian. That and why Shroud had been able to craft and yet shoot fire when angered.

No mob could craft and no Minecraftian could spit fire from their fingertips.

Aodh signed, he felt pity for Shroud and having to go through with what the Followers threw at him. He also never seen someone so close to the border of becoming a mob and suddenly being able to resist.

_"Or maybe he was resisting the whole time...? mystery of the century right there." _Aodh mused with a small smile as everything was packed away and they were ready to move out.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

When the two left, it was obvious that they would take the path to their left, away from the fortress where Shroud had seen the Follower for the first time. And while they traveled the two actually started up a conversation amazingly, though Shroud didn't have much to say so he mostly listened to Aodh's blabbing

They continued for quite awhile like this until Shroud had a thought popped into his head when Aodh began chatting about an adventure he had at some mountains.

**"How did you get here?"** Shroud interrupted Aodh who was really starting to talk now about his travels.

"Eh? oh well that, hmm...where to start?" Aodh paused for a moment," I believe it all started when i was visiting my home town called Glenn, it's a peaceful village shielded by mountains on almost all sides except on the south." Another pause for Aodh as he thought back to the day before arriving in the Nether.

"I was chatting with some old friends about all the going-ons in the years i was gone when an explosion went off and destroyed a house near the western part of the town." Aodh stopped as he thought again about the details. He didn't noticed Shroud face-palmed who was starting to think Aodh's pauses to be obnoxious already.

Aodh continued on anyway," At first i thought a stray creeper had gotten into the town by accident when an alarm went off signalling a griefer raid was coming. soon enough more explosions started to go off and at least twenty griefers started to charge towards the town. I only had my sword and some items as i had been going to Ellie's house to drop off a gift or two. She really did like making potions and stuff."

The two began moving again towards the open area where Shroud fought the Ghast. Shroud winced when the battle reminded him of his sprained wrist, but he ignored it and listened as Aodh continued still.

"There weren't many fighters in the town at the time, since most were away helping to defend a nearby village that was building a wall. So that left me and about seven other guys defending. And despite of the unfair numbers, we knew the land better and used smarts to beat the griefers back." The two of them rounded several confusing corners before coming out onto a large ledge two blocks above a lake of lava.

"Then suddenly a Nether portal appears out of no where to my right and at least three more griefers come out of it decked out in diamond. One of them grabbed me and threw me into the center of the three of them before they started to punch me back and forth. Luckily or unluckily, a stray tnt blew up next to us and sent us all flying. I flew though the Nether portal and ended up here and-"

**"Why didn't you go back?" **Shroud cut Aodh off with a slight glare.

"As i was saying i got up from the little 'flying' experience and race towards the still active portal when it stopped working when i was just an inch away from getting back to the fight." Shroud calmed down again after that and asked

**"Could you not rebuild it or restart it?"** Shroud face scrunched up in confusion for he didn't really know how portals worked.

"I didn't have any flint and steel to relight it and something destroyed it from the other side. But I have a hunch about a little something." Aodh looked over to Shroud to make sure he was listening.

"At first i went looking for anything else to relight the portal with, but that obviously didn't do much besides causing our whole little adventure back near the fortress. Now though, i'm thinking that maybe the griefers might have fix the portal since that's were they come through during the raid." Aodh chuckled after he finished at Shroud's 'thinking' face which looked a bit silly. Shroud then glared at Aodh before sighing, thinking that he was going to deal with Aodh for awhile more.

**"So... you think that the portal has reactivated and you want to find it again?"** Shroud said with a hint of sarcasm and a roll of his eyes.

"Exactly! And that's where I'm leading us at this very moment, but remember keep your eyes on the look out for the griefers. They could still be hanging around the portal." Shroud nodded in understanding as they continued forth looking for the portal.

Around something like a hour passed when the two finally found the portal and better yet, the portal was working again with no other person in sight. The two of them gave a short cheer before quickly scurried over, still not sure if they really were alone. Nothing attacked them as they approached the portal though.

"Okay Shroud, we'll both get into the portal at the same time. Who knows what might happen between if we went in one at a time, could get separated." Aodh then turned to face the portal and the two of them walked into the portal side-by-side as they waited for the portal to teleport them to the Overworld.

The portal was going too slow and soon a lone Ghast had appeared and fired at the two of them still standing in the portal. Aodh gave a sharp gasped as both he and Shroud had a look of horror on their faces. Panic flew through them both hoping to get lucky and have the attack miss.

Aodh was the one thinking more clearly and drew out Old Faithful (which Shroud return to him) praying he could hit the flaming discharge away from them and give them enough time to get away.

The fiery ball of the Ghast came closer and closer. Just as it was about to hit, Aodh swung his sword and managed to smacked the ball, but not in the direction he wanted.

The explosive ball hit the ground near the portal and because of this Aodh lost his grip on his sword out of fear from the failure. Shroud luckily had grabbed the iron sword quickly before the two were teleported away.

Good thing too, because the impact from the close blast caused the portal to weaken and soon stop working just after the portal sent them to the Overworld.

Bad thing is once one side of the portal was destroyed so was the other and the two hadn't gotten quite to the other side yet. Shroud panicked when he just floating in a strange black limbo with Aodh no where in sight.

Then an unknown sound came to his ears sounding like a thousands scratched chalkboards before suddenly there was land beneath his feet and he started to fall. It wasn't a long fall, but it still hurt when he landed and his already existing wounds cried out.

Shroud swallowed the scream of pain that had built up in his throat and slowly pushed himself to take a look at his new surroundings.

For one Aodh was nowhere in sight and the second thing that Shroud observed was that it was so FREAKING COLD. Shroud shivered almost instantly since he was used to the intense heat of the Nether, that and the fact his cloths were not suited for his new environment.

Shroud's bare feet were hit the worst from the cold as they shuffle in a cold, white powder that seem to stretch for miles on end.

Then Shroud noticed some strange looking structures towards the right side of him. He had heard Aodh described trees to him and assumed that was what he was seeing and so he decided to walked to them when he saw green below the trees.

He got underneath one and started to rub his cold feet, trying to get the warmth back into them when he stopped and listened.

He heard a voice that sounded distant yet close by. A minute ticks by as Shroud continued to wait as the voice seem to become more clear as time passed.

and then...

_"Hello? can you hear me?" _needless to say Shroud freak out from the bodiless voice.

**A/N how about that for an ending for a chapter? XD Anyways I'm still accepting some OCs and again just PM me (or if your a guest give a review) about your character's **_**name, age, likes/dislikes **_**and a**_** short background story. **_**You can also suggest names for places, lakes, etc.**

**To Kitty Cat:** Loved your character and the detail you put in! He'll defiantly show up in the future chapters :)**  
**

**Hope you all enjoy this new chapter! :D**


	12. Ch11 First Night

Shroud at the moment was under a the same tree in a crounching position and covering his ears in a feeble attempt to block out the voice that was talking to him. The tactic wasn't working very well since the voice was inside his head.

_"Hey! I'm trying to talk to-"_ The voice began to say when Shroud growled at it to stop. Shroud was not trusting a stranger's voice inside his head.

**"GO AWAY!"** Shroud screamed into the empty air.

_"No I will not go away! I'm trying to help you!" _The unknown voice said with a hint of determination.

**"Yea right! you're just another one of those Followers trying to fool me!"** Shroud retorted at the voice. For a moment Shroud thought that got rid of the voice before it came back a moment later.

_"That's why you won't listen to me? because you think I'm one of THEM? No no I'm not an ally of theirs. I'm a player." _The voice calmly said and Shroud was about to state his disagreement, but the last bit the voice said confused him.

**"A player? what." **Shroud somewhat quieter said and of course the strange voice replied.

_"um... well a player is...um... kinda a guide of sorts. Every Minecraftian has one from what i can tell. soooo yea."_ The voice said with some awkward-ness. Shroud didn't believe a word of it.

**"Okay sure, but where the Nether were you when i was in the Nether!?"** Shroud screeched at the voice still feeling it was a trap he was being led into.

"_Well... technically I'm not your original 'guide'. My brother was and then for some reason he couldn't reconnect with you because of that other guy. That guy you called a Follower, i think he hacked in and forced my brother away from being able to contact you. Oh and BTW i was with you in the Nether, you called me the 'other voice', but that Follower dude wasn't letting me speak to you properly."_ The voice finished the monologue leaving Shroud to pondered whether the words had truth in them or not.

He wasn't sure, but if it knew about the 'other voice' than maybe it was telling the truth since Shroud hadn't told anyone else about it. Still he wasn't pleased with having a strange voice inside his head so soon after he had encountered the Follower who could talk inside his head as well.

**"Grrr... Fine I'll believe your story for now, but you do something i find suspicious I won't listen to you anymore."** Shroud angrily replied to his 'guide' feeling a little helpless that he couldn't do anything else besides not listening to the person.

_"FINALLY! You'll listen to me at last and good thing too, it's starting to get dark. You need to make a shelter quickly."_ The player cheerfully said with an ominous undertone.

Shroud didn't know what happened at night so it was understandable that he didn't understand why the player seemed eager to make a shelter quickly.

**"Why? what happens at night?" **Shroud curiously question and tensed his body for the answer.

_"You see, hostile mobs come out at night in the Overworld and will attack you on the spot. That and it gets colder at night and you might freeze being outside in the snow." _The player stated the obvious.

_**"good reasons i guess"**_ Shroud thought grudgingly before looking around to see if he could find a hill of sorts to dig out a temporary shelter. He saw one almost at once and made a move to get going, but the player interrupted.

_"Also you should probably get wood while you're at it... maybe.. you don't HAVE to but-" _the player spot short and remained quiet except for a 'meep' which made Shroud a bit nervous. Sure he hated having to hear voices in his head, but this one at least seemed better than the last.

**"**_**so what made it shut u-"**_ Shroud began to think but then suddenly...

_"GET DOWN SHROUD!" _ the player's voice boomed out making him wince, but he ducked down anyway. And it was a good move to do because a few sharp '_TWANGS'_ rushed over his head. When Shroud looked up to see what had made the noise, he saw four arrows (not that he knew they were called arrows) imbedded into the bark of the tree behind him.

_"Run! y-y-you're not prepared, j-j-just make a s-small shelter quickly! The skeletons can't-t-t dig like y-y-you."_ The voice advised with weird stuttering. Shroud hesitated for a bit since he was battling rather to run away (which he hated) or to stand his ground and face the enemies.

Had Shroud not been injured from his previous fights he might've fought, but that wasn't the case and so he made a break for the hill he had saw eariler as more arrows whizzed by close to him.

He dodged the trees as he sprinted past them towards the hill with more arrows thudding into the trees around him. Shroud got to the hill quickly and was shivering from the cold as he started to dig the dirt away with his bare hands. All the while the sound of clicking bones came closer.

Shroud had made a 2x1 entry two blocks into the hill when he turned around and blocked off the entry-way. another 'twang' was heard as the skeletons shot one final shot at Shroud, but instead hit the dirt that was now in the way.

In total darkness, Shroud sighed a breath of relief and turned away from the closed off exit. feeling cramped, Shroud dug away at the dirt around him and made a small 3x3 room, still in darkness. It was very silent, making Shroud wonder if those mobs had left.

He also wondered what happened to the player. It had warned him and told him to quickly make the shelter he was now in, but now he wasn't hearing anything. That is until a few seconds later when it spoke again with the same weird stuttering.

_"l-l-l-l-ll-laaaaaaa-a-a-aaaaaaaaggg-g-g-g..."_ Was all the voice said with annoyance and Shroud honestly had no idea what it was talking about this time.

**"lag? what the ^^^^ is a lag?!"** Shroud questioned with a bit of anger and he waited for a reply which was taking a lot longer than it should. Still he got an answer.

_"s-ss-sorry-y Shroud. My-y connection with y-you is bug-g-gy and so I'm l-l-aggin-gg which means in my POV y-y-ou're moving really slow. J-j-just give m-me a minute I'll be back soon hop-pefully." _And then silence which Shroud was grateful for because the 'lagged' voice of the player might have made his ears cry blood if it continued any longer.

So Shroud sat down on the dirt floor bored. A few minutes pass and still no word from the player. Soon Shroud's thoughts were wandering and some of them were not pleasant.

One of which was so unpleasant that Shroud bolted upright in panic. He huffed before going to check to see if those skeleton mobs left him alone. He dug out the top dirt block and looked out into the night. Shroud quickly closed it back up because the cold air made him shiver.

He was beginning to doze off when the player voice rang inside his head again.

_"hehe... um.. sorry about that. can't control lag unfortunately."_ Shroud huffed in response thinking it was a petty excuse to talk to some Follower ally or something.

**"Well 'person inside my head' care to explain what happened, who are you, and how come i can't see you, but you can see me?"** Shroud distrustfully told the player.

_"okaay... let's see.. night-time came, skeletons spawned, i got lagged behind because of bad connection. That's what happened in a nutshell. As for who i am, I'm known as jlott," _the voice paused at Shroud's snickering_," yes i know dumb name, i didn't pick it mind you. And as for the last part, I'm in a different world known as Earth and i have equipment to view minecraftia, while you don't have the same tech. does that answer your questions?"_

_**"**_**Yes and gives me more questions about this 'Earth' of yours."** Shroud replied back before going back to punched out the top dirt block to see if the sun had risen yet while waiting for 'jlott' to speak again. Shroud mentally laughed at the name again. Who would come up with a name like that?

Then Shroud frowned because outside it was still dark and still cold or at least colder than the little makeshift shelter he was in.

_"I'm not surprised that you have more questions, but right now how 'bout we plan on where to go before we set off in the morning, hmm?"_ The player suggested. Shroud paused before making a blunt response.

**"Well how would I know where to go? I just landed in this realm with no idea of my surroundings." **Shroud plugged the entry up again still waiting.

_"oh no i didn't mean it like THAT. I meant which biome should we go to? You obviously don't like the taiga biome. There are jungles, moutains, forests, deserts, plains and a few others to choose from." _the player rephrased a bit with a small hint of childish excitement in it's voice.

**"Which ever one is the most warmest, I'll go with that one." **Shroud boringly said hoping to quickly get jlott to shut up.

_"That would be the desert, but problem with it is LOTS of mobs spawn there, that and there's no food unless you find a village."_ Shroud sighed, but perked up at the word village.

**"Village? What are those like?"** Shroud asked only to mentally hit himself when he realized that the question would keep the player talking for longer.

_"Well villages spawn in two biomes; deserts and plains. In the villages live peaceful people known as just Villagers. Also, they mainly grow food and trade items with any Minercaftian. That's pretty much it about villages." _The player quickly stated.

Shroud thought for a moment thinking about the idea of a village. For one he would get easy access to food and possibly other items. It also seem like a place that Aodh might go to since he did mention a lot of place names when blabbing of his travels.

**"To the plains it is then."**

******A/N bit boring this chapter huh? don't worry it won't be this way next chapter. oh a still accepting a few more OC's, either PM me or leave a review :)**


	13. Ch12 The Village

The sun had risen after Shroud and the player had decided to go out and find a plains biome and hope that they would find a village. As Shroud walked out, the player insisted again to get some wood.

Shroud had asked why and in turn got a long list of things he could use wood for. He face-palmed and tune out the player's voice who talked even more than Aodh ever did... if that was even possible.

Still he went to the nearest tree and collected all the wood it had. Once that was done he turned around and wondered which way to go. The player had just told him 'pick a direction' and so he did at a sprint not wanting to be in the snowy biome any longer.

For a long time he sprinted past the spruce trees and seemingly endless snow covered ground with a pleasant silence from the player. But soon enough he was starting to get hungry and slowed down to eat under a tree.

Shroud had in his pockets three pork-chops that Aodh had given him and some mushrooms. He picked one of the pork-chops and ate it quickly before continuing his run. So far Shroud hated the snow-covered landscape and even though he ran mostly, he couldn't warm up and his feet had become numb a while ago.

Another night was coming on before he saw a different looking biome up ahead.

The biome looked like it didn't contain a speck of snow on the ground much to Shroud's delight and he sped towards it faster. He wasn't sure what type of biome it was, but he soon found out it was the biome he was looking for thanks to jlott's know-it-all blabber.

On one side, Shroud was sorta glad on the inside to have someone who could show him how to survive in the Overworld. But on the other-hand he wished jlott would just shut-up and keep their chatter short.

Anyway, he when he stepped onto the newly discovered plains biome, Shroud slowed down and began scanning the now dark horizon for any sort of buildings that the player described in unnecessarily great detail. He didn't immediately see any buildings and then started to walk to what he believed to be more towards the center of the biome.

All around him every thing was quiet in the night even the player. But although he liked the silence from the player, he could still sense their emotions and they were uneasy and tense.

He knew he was later going to hate his next action, but he wanted to know what was up. But quickly he closed his mouth when he remembered his run-in with the skeletons last night and realized that the player might be keeping silent in order to listen to their surroundings.

Shroud paused for a second to look around him in case any mobs were near-by before pulling out another pork-chop since his running earlier made him hungry again. He finished eating when he felt the player start to panic and made a sound like 'Cree'

But the player reacted a second too late when the dreadful sound of hissing came from behind Shroud. Even with the sudden adrenaline in his vines, Shroud made it only two steps away when the infamous creeper Aodh had told him about exploded, sending Shroud flying several blocks.

The explosion created enough force that it rocked Shroud's very core with massive amount of pain. When he hit the ground again, Shroud landed on his injured leg wrong nearly making him cry out, but he held his tongue.

Unfortunately, the bad landing re-opened his somewhat heal wound and the make-shift bandages leaked red once again. Shroud made it to his feet, but stumbled quickly as his leg couldn't support his weight any more.

Shroud winced and inwardly cursed at his turn of luck and attempted to get up again and fail, but then he felt the player's panic rise again before he/she spoke.

_"u-ummm...?! fffffffffffff- uhhhh... hold on I'm going to try to get you into creative mode!" _jlott told Shroud rapidly, but he became confused at the mention of 'creative mode'. So he waited to see what would happen since Shroud felt too much pain to trust his voice to not show weakness.

Soon enough he felt something and it happened to be jlott's emotions, but something was wrong.

_"Shroud! I can't get into creative! that follower dude is preventing me!"_ The player suddenly shouted out and the mere mention of the Follower caused Shroud's mind to reel back. If he disable whatever thing the player wanted to use to help him, then Shroud might bleed-out or have to feebly fight off any mobs near by.

All of a sudden, Shroud felt a hard pull in his core and could no longer feel jlott's presents. Shroud didn't like that no matter how annoying they got, better than being tormented by the other person.

_**"well well well...? Were you having a nice chat with an inferior? Tsk. I thought you better than that, 'Shroud'." **_The Follower's voice leaked with sarcasm as Shroud's adrenalin pumped up to maximum.

Shroud's hand went over his heart in an attempt to not show how scared he felt for he didn't want the Follower to pick up on it.

_**"Just look at you now... What happened to that strength of yours? Oh that's right! It left you when you decided to not heed my orders and help that Minecrafian scum. what a shame." **_Shroud grounded his teeth together trying to hold back his rage that he knew wouldn't help him, but rather give the Follower more fuel to taunt him. But Shroud's pride couldn't take being taunted that he was weak.

**"GO AWAY.",** Shroud growled deeply**," I don't need you or your filthy 'advice' so GET AWAY FROM ME." **Course the Follower ignored Shroud's demand and continued.

_**"aww... is that the way you treat an old friend? What about all those fun times we had in the Nether? We don't have to be enemies you know so how about-? WAIT WHA-?!"**_ The Follower started to say when something strange cut off his mental link with Shroud who sat where he stood in confusion.

_"FIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRREEEEEEEWAA AALLLLL GOOOOOO!" _A certain player screamed out like a battle-cry. The shout made Shroud cheer inside as the sound of jlott's voice showed he hadn't been abandoned, that he still had someone to rely on even if he didn't like to rely on others.

Moments pass and all Shroud can feel from the player was sheer mountains of determination rolling off him/her. Just as Shroud started to open his mouth to ask what the player was doing a 'poof' sounded and in Shroud's hand was a bottle of ...something.

**"What is this...? Where did it come from?"** Shroud inquired out-loud and soon he got his answer.

_"It's a potion of invisibility, it conceals the user to any mobs or other minecraftians. It was the only object i could nabbed from creative mode before i got kicked out of it. Ffff-ing Follower messing up my computer..." _The player spoke with annoyance directed at said Follower who no longer had complete control.

Shroud nodded in understanding and quickly drank the potion. When he finished, Shroud noted that he could no longer see his hands or the rest of him. Still, he couldn't get up because of his injured leg and so he started to crawl in hopes of what might be the direction of a village.

It was slow going and several times Shroud found himself freezing every time he saw a mob even though he didn't need to worry about them spotting him. But because of the potion's effect, Shroud could get a closer look when he paused to get a closer look at what he needed to look out for so he could avoid the mobs easier.

Dawn soon began to approach when jlott warned Shroud that the effects would wear off soon. After the player said that, it exclaimed cheerfully that it saw a village just over the horizon.

Shroud grinned before grimacing as he forced himself to keep moving. In a few minutes, he made it to the outskirts of the village when the potion's effect finally gave out. Now that he was visible again, Shroud shouted hoping to catch someone's attention.

And he did, A little village girl in an apprentice priest's tunic peeked out of a door of one of the buildings close to Shroud. She closed the door again and came out a second later with another villager who wore a brown tunic with a black apron tied around his mid-section.

The adult villager walked over to Shroud and lifted him off the ground and carried him over to the house which the little girl continued to peek out of. Shroud was placed down on a bed in the corner of the medium sized house and the blacksmith villager quickly looked him over before nodding to the little girl.

"Daughter, could you get your mentor from the church and fix this man up?", The little girl nodded before dashing to the door when her father stopped her again," And please tell your brother to come back to our house?" Again the girl nodded and soon continued her dash out the door.

This left Shroud alone with the blacksmith villager and soon an awkward silence filled the air as Shroud started to fidget uncomfortably. It didn't last long because the little girl came back in a minute with the person from the church.

"Well hello mister!", The little girl's mentor greeted," What happens to need my attention?" Shroud simply pointed at his still slightly bleeding leg in response. The Priest (as jlott now informed him) began unwrapping the make-shift bandage and cleaning the wound with a wet piece of cloth.

After that the Priest got out a needle with some spider string and stitch up Shroud's wound expertly. The priest then re-wrapped the injury in a new clean gauze before checking Shroud for further injuries.

Shroud was soon given the all-clear when his wrist was wrapped up, too.

"Now rest up and don't stress yourself too much, I don't want to fix you up again because you moved the wrong way." The priest calmly and sternly said before exiting the house, leaving the three remaining occupants to themselves. The little girl was the first to break the ice between them.

"Sooo, what's your name mister?" She smiled innocently and Shroud couldn't help but smile back.

**A/N and that concludes this chapter :P And I have some important announcements to make:**

**1.) I'm NO LONGER accepting OC's soo yeah**

**2.) I'm posting pictures based on this fic on my DeviantArt account, hayley-the-hedgehog. My first two pics have all the OC's that have been submitted previously (**Rosetta, Tyler, Damon AND Rick**) and the three major characters who have showed up before this chapter (**Shroud, Aodh, The Follower**)**

**3.) Message to Pantsman1: Your character has been accepted, I just didn't reply in the last chapter because I was busy trying to fit him into the story somehow. My only problem is the gun part of your character since guns aren't in the default minecraft ( i want the story to be as close to the real minecraft as possible), but I might add mods in to the mix of this story. :P**

**see ya next chapter readers! :D**


	14. Ch13 Missing

The villagers were less chatty than either Aodh or jlott and this made Shroud sigh in relief as he sat in the bed the villagers let him rest in while his leg healed. He didn't think he could handle more rambling of words, but when he asked about the former of the two talkative people the Father of the little girl shook his head.

"We don't get many visitors around our remote village, so we don't often get news until it's perhaps three months old at the earliest." Shroud frowned at that news and decided to change the subject so the awkward silence didn't cling to the air again because although Shroud liked silence, he didn't enjoy it when it was awkward.

**"Sooo what's around and about this village then?"** Shroud asked boredly, having nothing else to do until the priest gives him the clear to leave the house. 'Daughter' spoke up first. (Shroud had found out quickly that the Villagers didn't have true names after the three introduced themselves and they usually call themselves Son, Neighbor, Farmer,etc.)

"Well... ummm... the mobs are coming more often and..." the little girl started before losing her confidence and quieting down. Her father picked up where she left off.

"As my daughter was saying, more mobs have been spotted around the village and we've been trying to get enough iron to make an iron golem to protect us. Because of the situation and the fact our village doesn't see much trade coming in, my son has begun taking dangerous risks in the mines." It was at this point that the door swung open and a mini version of the adult blacksmith came in holding an stone pickaxe.

"I'm back! And I bring 20 iron blocks with me!" The young blacksmith yelled with pride and a bit of cockiness seeping out with it.

"And I've told the same amount of blocks to stay out of the mines! you're too young to go mining alone!" Father quickly replied back at his son who's look of pride vanish with a deep scowl replacing it.

"Really? Even if I WAS old enough you wouldn't let me go down into those mines old man. Besides just a few more blocks of iron and we can have a golem up and running in no time! Then we don't have to worry about those evil mobs ever again." The Blacksmith's son retorted back.

"Did you get the coal needed to smelt the iron?" The father asked blankly. the son's face paused in a poker face.

"... nope..." Was the answer after a few seconds ticked by. Father sighed and shook his head.

"You need to think about these things or you'll end up dead one of these days." The father said with pity leeking out. Shroud on the other hand was feeling uncomfortable being stuck in the middle of a family argument and really just wanted to dash out the door and run.

The boy began to open his mouth again to continue the argument when the priest came inside holding a strange object.

"You two fighting over something again?" The priest calmly said as if she expected this which probably was the case. The two in disagreement both nodded their heads and looked away from each other.

"And you do realize you have a guest in the house right?" At this the older blacksmith winced because he forgot and his son, the younger blacksmith seemed to snap out of a trace and whipped his head around to seemingly finally seeing Shroud for the first time. Shroud's face scrunched up at being stared at again.

"Oh yes of course, I kinda forgot about that Priest. Son, this is Shroud, we found him-" Father apologized sheepishly before _**trying**_ to introduce Shroud to his son.

" **I** found him!" The daughter put in quickly with satisfaction. Father sighed and continued.

"-Your sister found him injured and so he's staying in our home until he heals back up." Father finished and his son just stared back at him.

"Well, he might not be here for long. I managed to find a glistering melon in the storage and it should heal his leg back up faster. I would've made an instant health potion but i ran out of nether wart treating the Butcher from the attack last week." The priest began happily before dropping off towards the end about the attack. Either way, she tossed the glistering melon to Shroud who fumbled a bit since he wasn't on guard at the moment.

"Just eat that Shroud and your leg should be fine within a day or two." The priest smiled kindly before exiting the house saying something about getting some milk to help with a case of accidental poisoning with a potato.

"Kids I'm going out for a walk. If you need me just come get me." the father tiredly spoke before leaving as well. This left Shroud with the two kids who looked at him with... eagerness? Still, Shroud thought it strange that their father would leave his kids with a person they JUST met. He also felt his anger rise because the kids kept staring at him.

"So you're a real Minecraftian?" The young blacksmith spoke out of nowhere catching Shroud by surprise a little.

**"um..what?"** Shroud asked confused.

"You know, Minecraftians? Those blessed by Notch to created so many things! The brave adventurers who travel across the lands and defeat the evil mobs without fear?" the youngster said with enthusiasm. A new light sparkle lit up in both the kids eyes, even the quiet girl.

**" hmm...,"** Shroud sat in thought. He wasn't quite sure if he was a Minecraftian or not, but deep inside he knew he was, that and he didn't want to disappoint the gleeful looking kids.

**"Yes I am and I guess you can say I have been on an adventure for a bit of time recently." **Shroud replied and soon both the kids eyes went wide with awe.

" Can you tell us what your adventure is mister Shroud?" The young girl asked innocently and Shroud winced on the inside because he didn't think he would have to tell a story, that's more Aodh's thing.

"Yeah I'm kinda curious to know, too! Like how you ended up here." The boy questioned leaving Shroud to sigh as he knew he wasn't going to get out of story-telling time- he was going to hate it. he decided he might as well tell them, problem was that Shroud didn't really know where to begin at first- though the death of the young pigman was definitely out, since Shroud regretted that now. After a bit of time, Shroud decided to start off with his meeting with Aodh and continued from there.

All the way through, the two kids listened and watched with fascination as Shroud told his story and at some parts they looked shocked. The little girl constantly asked questions about everything in the Nether since most villagers never visited the awful place before and Shroud told her that that was a good thing. Evening started to roll in once Shroud finished his story- and glistering melon- but Shroud felt uneasy by one fact.

**"Where's your Father? Didn't he say he was going out for a walk?"** Shroud question about the older blacksmith location. The girl shrugged her shoulders in her quiet way while her brother spoke up.

"I dunno. He always takes these walks and comes back just as night comes. So he should be back soon." The young smith calmly said before going on to ask a fury of questions, mostly about the Player and the Follower. Let's just say Shroud got a bit frustrated with the kid AND with jlott since the player was trying to explain at the same time as the young smith ran his mouth almost non-stop. Night had official came once Shroud quieted the two down.

**'**_**FINALLY.' **_Shroud thought while pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

_'sorry...'_ jlott quietly spoke making Shroud pause quickly in revelation.

_**'Since WHEN could you HEAR my thoughts?!'**_ Shroud asked after his pausing.

_'Since forever... yeah I guess i should of told you earlier... ignore me and my forgetfulness!' _jlott explained with a shout at the end. Shroud was going to mentally yell at her when the little girl interrupted.

"Mister Shroud? Why are you making weird faces? and ummm... Father hasn't come back yet..." The girl said in a quiet tone that Shroud almost didn't hear her.

**"Oh what? Sorry, just thinking about something and hold on I'll peek out the door to see if he's coming."** Shroud blurted out quickly before getting up to check for the adult blacksmith. He opened the door slowly and scanned the surrounding area, but seeing no sign of the Smith. He closed the door before going to pick up Old Faithful.

"What are you doing? Ms. Priest told you to stay inside!" The little girl squeaked out worriedly.

**"Well I'm not seeing your dad so I'm just going to check the other houses to see if he ran into one of them instead. I'll only be gone for a bit then I'm coming right back." **Shroud explained and got ready to move outside when the young smith grabbed the back of his torn tunic.

"I'm coming with you! I wanna help because although my dad is a old fart I wanna know if he's okay." The young smith said with determination and a surprised Shroud blinked before recovering from the shock.

**"I'm sure he's fine kid and if I do find him I'll tell you if he's alright, okay?" **Shroud said calmly but to no avail as the determined look was still on the young smith's face.

"No way, I'm coming and that's final! This is like an adventure and I wanna be on board for it!" The young smith pouted at Shroud who huffed in annoyance. He was only checking houses for the dad and the kid thought he was going on an adventure, It made Shroud wonder how boring this village was.

**"Fine, But you're staying close to me kid. I-" **Shroud started but got interrupted by the young smith.

"I don't wanna be called 'kid' I wanna awesome name like you Minecraftians! Not the boring names of our tradition." The young smith continued to pout and whine making Shroud's short patience run out.

**"You can think about that on the way, for all we know is that your father could be in danger and every second you waste could end him!" **Shroud snapped at the kid who recoiled a bit.** "Now come on and let's find your dad."**

And so the two walked out into the night and began searching all the houses of the rather large village. Some houses were vacant and others contained villagers most of whom were farmers. A good amount of them ran away from Shroud when they first saw him, thinking he was some new mob out to kill them, but their nerves were eased quickly when they spotted the young smith standing confidently next to Shroud.

Although still slightly on edge, the villagers did answer Shroud's questions about the older blacksmith's whereabouts, mostly with a 'no we haven't seen him all day' or 'check next door'.

By the time the two searched most of the houses, dawn started to break on the east horizon with no luck what-so-ever. Even the young smith's confident outer shell began to see cracks as the two started to get to the last houses. Finally the two came to the church, the last building to check. The only person inside was the Priest who smacked Shroud across the head and scowled at him for leaving the house without her permission.

Soon though, she stopped nagging Shroud and listened about their problem.

"No, I haven't seen him go into any buildings, but I did see him go into the mines a little passed the time a gave you the glistering melon." The Priest told Shroud who nodded in understanding.

**"Okay, Can you show us to the mines? I want to know if he's fine down there." **Shroud asked only to get another nag session from the Priest telling him to stay out of the mines until he's healed completely. Then she promptly show them out the door and pointed back towards the young smith's house.

"I want you two to go back to the house and stay there. Blacksmith may have even come back by now and is worrying about you two! And you-" She pointed her finger at the young smith. "How could you leave your sister in the house all by herself? You know how scared she is to be by herself!" At this the young smith winced under the Priest's angry gaze. Said Priest then turned around and shut the door behind her.

The two stood there for a bit looking at the door before Shroud began to moved back towards the house.

"Hey! what about my dad?! We should go into the mines and search for him!" The young smith blurted out quickly and stumbled slightly trying to catch up to Shroud.

**"We are going to, but first we're going to the house to see if your sister's alright and also to see if your dad came back."** Shroud calmly explained to the worried kid who nodded slightly in guilt since he wanted to go the mines more than he wanted to check up on his easily scared sister.

neither knew what would happen next.

**A/N: Hey guys! just posting a few messages down here so read them if you like, they could hold interesting updates!**

**I'm kinda planning to do a AU comic series about my misadventures in Minecraft which will be upload to my deviantart account (**hayley-the-hedgehog**) These will mostly feature my brother and I; Me looking like Shroud and my brother looking like Aodh (**since those ARE our skins *cough***)**** tell me if I should do this or not either through your reviews or through a PM. :P**

To Pantsman1: **type **'hayley-the-hedgehog**DOT**deviantart**DOT**com'** and it'll take you to my DeviantArt account where you can find my Minecraft pictures of the characters easily. just replace the 'DOT's with a **"."**  
**

To Dennis51000: **Sorry, but I'm no longer accepting OCs. You came just a bit too late.**


	15. Ch14 The Mines

Shroud and the young smith travelled back to the house with silence clinging the air around them despite the loud chatter from the other villagers. The young villager shot daggers at Shroud in a hateful glare for making them go back to the house. But he was also confused at Shroud's actions and also heavily nervous for her sister now that he realized he left her at the house by herself.

Just less than a mintue goes by and the two were already halfway to the house now that they weren't checking each and every house. Suddenly, Shroud stopped mid stride causing the young smith to bump into his back.

"what are-?" the small villager began to ask before Shroud answered his incomplete question with another question.

**"Where is the mines?"** Shroud inquired without turning around to face the young smith.

"It's just by the small pond near the library, but why-?" the young smith answered only to have his question cut off again.

**"Go to your house and check on your sister. If your father happens to be at the house, come get me at the entrance of the mine."** Shroud carefully explained to the confused villager only to be meet quickly with accusion.

"Well why wait until now to tell me this?! we could've been at the mines if we left when we were at the church! Just what are you planning?" The young villager questioned sourly and bluntly only to be meet with Shroud's unamused glare that caused the villager to zip it.

**"Well for one, to make sure the Priest didn't dog me the whole way in and out of the mines and to give you more time to check the house. So get to it, we need to move as swiftly as possible." **Shroud explained quickly though the young smith was still a bit sore at being told what to do, but nodded anyway (mostly at the priest part)and started to head back to the house with haste.

However, the young smith turned back around to glimspe Shroud walking away to the mine. It was at this point the young smith notice Shroud barely hiding a bad limp. He knew Shroud had to rest soon or face having to crawl back or worse being hounded by the Priest. The young smith shivered at the thought having felt the wraith of the Priest's nagging before.

Leaving the thought of the Priest behind, the young smith dashed off to his house which laid almost at the outskirts of the village to check on his sister and possibly father.

It wasn't long before Shroud disappeared from his view and he arrived at his small-ish house. Already it was obvious that his father never made it back to the house or he wouldn't hear the quiet weeping noise coming from inside the house.

He opened the door and was instantly enveloped in a tight hug by his crying sister.

"sniff... I thought you'd...sniff... never come back brother!" The little sister weeped into her brother's arms. The young smith winced at seeing his sister like this and sought to try to cheer her up.

"It's okay me. and Shroud were just checking the houses looking for father, it wasn't like we went to the farlands or nothing." The young smith stated as his sister continued to cry.

"I...sniff... guess... but where is mister Shroud anyway?" The young smith's sister asked confused.

"Umm he's at the mines right now looking for father, i came here to see if father came home while we were gone. he's not here so i'm going to go to Shroud as planned and-" The young smith was explaining rapidly only to get a slight surprise.

"I'm coming with you." The little sister boldly yet fearfully stated, fear dripping out of her voice like a waterfall. The young smith's face quickly shaped itself to show surprise.

"WHAT?! But you HATE the mines. y-you said you'd never go near the place!" The young smith exclaimed his surprise with a stutter at his sister's decision to faced the mines with him and Shroud.

"I don't wanna be alone in the house anymore though! It's scarier being alone in the house than in the dark." Sister explained weakly, shaking from fear of being alone and/or in the shadows of the mines.

"FINE. But Shroud might not like this." the young smith retorted back with slight irritation

Well it would probably just make Shroud hate the current day even more as earlier in the same day he walked slowly over to the mines, his bad leg barely able to hold his weight.

Then, there was the villagers eyeing him with fear or curiousity and all the eyes staring at him made Shroud hate his life at the moment. He continued forth however and soon made it to the mines right where the young smith told him it was at.

There were a few torches lighting the entrance and so Shroud grab one of the torches and proceded down into the mines hoping to find out where the father went. Shroud had seen some of the mobs and so walked forward with caution, but haste, not sure if there was any time left to save the older smith if he needed to be rescued.

Shroud also had to mind his leg as he descended from one block to another. Sometimes, jlott would point things out to avoid so he didn't hurt his leg further or mentally pointed at signs of someone being there before. this helped Shroud a bit as it lead Shroud on a more confident path. other than that jlott keep quiet allowing the two of them to listen to any signs of life; good or bad.

By the time Shroud remembered to go wait for the young smith at the entrance he was already seeing the glint of gold in the darkness. Shroud made to turn back but a whisper in the air made him rethink for a second.

"_It sounds like... um.. i dunno zombies? Should we check it out?" _jlott said questioningly to Shroud who only nodded and preceded down the twisting mines towards where the sound was coming from.

Time had barely passed a minute when Shroud stumbled upon a massive group of zombies; at least twenty pounding against a cobblestone wall.

Shroud quickly hid behind a pillar of stone and peeked at the mass of zombies crowding the wall wandering what to do since he couldn't face that many in his condition. Though, he was more focused on what the zombies were doing just clawing on a random wall.

_**"jlott do you think that the kid's father is behind the wall? cause it seems likely he is."**_ Shroud thought-talked to jlott who only agreed to the idea. Now Shroud was trying to decide the best way to defeat all the zombies without hurting himself.

In the end, Shroud decided to attack from above by mining upwards into the pillar of stone creating stairs that reach two blocks high before simply mining in a straight path towards the open area where the zombies were at. It wasn't long before Shroud broke a window into the open space where the zombies continued to mindless throw themselves on the wall.

Shroud took out the cobblestone he just mined and starting making a pathway over to the zombies who couldn't reach Shroud to attack him. However, Shroud had a sword and now height advantage and was easily chopping away at the mobs below.

The zombies, of course, now realized Shroud was there and attacking them and tried to attacked back. For the zombies, they were having a difficult time dodging Shroud's iron sword and sought to find a way around for an opening to attack.

Which some of them did...

_"SHROUD! Behind you!"_ The player quickly warned Shroud just before a clever zombie could hit him in the back. Seeing their ally next to Shroud, the rest of the zombies looked to where said ally found the weak point.

It was the stairs as Shroud forgot to block the staircase to the thin platform he was standing on and so the rest of the zombies made their way towards it. Shroud was now having a more challenging time as the last of the zombies charged for the stairs and forced him to the ledge of the floating pathway.

Old Faithful swung back and forth in Shroud's attempt to knock the zombies off the ledge and buy himself time. It took a while, but after several minutes only three zombies remained, but Shroud was having a hard time keeping his balance as his leg throbbed with pain.

A zombie was about to knock Shroud off the ledge when a familar voice rang out.

"Not by Notch's hand will you defeat US!" The young smith shouted as he charged forward with a stone sword much too large for him and slashed the one zombie away, efficiently killing it. Shroud then saw the little girl show up and much to his surprise and see her throw a potion of sorts and heavily wound the second zombie which then fell to the young smith's blade. Shroud then took an offensive stance and killed the last of the zombies.

"HA! We did it! We defeated some zombies!" The young smith bounced up and down at his achievement. "See? I can be just as good a fighter as a minecraftian!"

**"Well you should've been here earlier when there was an army of zombies still around."** Shroud joked a bit, but still he couldn't help but be a little proud at the two siblings' work no matter how small.

"ooooooooooo... an ARMY?" The young smith awed, obviously impressed. "But why were you not at the entrance like you said? me and sis waited for you up there."

**"I got a bit carried away, besides i think i might've found out where your father is."** Shroud edged around the subject trying to avoid it and it worked.

"really? where is he?" The younger of the two piped in quietly, still a bit shaken from just fighting a zombie. Shroud then explained to the two how the zombies were pounding on the cobblestone wall and how he thought their dad might be just beyond it.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go find our father!" The young smith shouted quickly before jumping off the platform and dashing to the wall of cobblestone. his sister and Shroud followed him and all three started to mine away at the wall although the little girl had trouble breaking even one block.

It didn't matter as the three broke through a two block thick wall and entered the other side. Soon both of the sibling shouted with joy as what- or who laid in front of them happened to be their father. Their dad was awake and tending to a damaged arm, but he was alive and hugged his two children.

"Son? Daughter? I never thought i'd be seeing you two down this far in the mines!" Their father exclaimed as his daughter weeped in his arms and his son began telling him what happened. Shroud however was curious.

**"I glad you're okay, but why were you down in the mines anyway and this deep too?"** Shroud inquired. The father sighed before answering.

"In truth, i came down here to get coal. I just wanted to get my son's iron smelted, he worked hard to get that iron and i just wanted to get the coal he forgot. I didn't want him to risk the mines again... i didn't know what i'd do if something killed him down here." The father admitted. "and the only reason i came down this far was because i got chased down here by all those zombies. They just came out of nowhere!"

"Dad, all i care about is that your alive! That and i could've handle myself." The father's son quickly boasted, but hugged his dad again to show he appreciate the attempted help. "Now how about we get back to the surface?"

Everyone nodded and picked everything they had brought with them and headed out of the mines.

"I just hope such a freak accident never happens again." The father stated tiredly as he cradled his injured arm. Everyone agree and continued on their way. However, when Shroud took one last look into the mines, he doubted the incident was an accident.

For a pair of white glowing eyes flickered in the depths of the mines...


	16. Ch15 A Bit of Peace

By the time Shroud and the three villagers arrived back at home, Shroud's leg throbbed with pain causing him to cringe with every step. The only good news was that the wound stayed closed and so no blood leaked out.

Then there was the matter of the older villager's hurt arm and the Follower being in the Overworld. Thankfully, jlott kept the Follower out of his head and so Shroud had some relief from the taunting nature of the Follower. During the walk back to the house, Shroud had asked jlott mentally how she keep the Follower at bay.

_"Loads of firewalls and I even sent a message to Notch himself about the problem. Haven't heard from him yet, though."_ the player simply explained to Shroud.

_**"I heard Notch before when the boy villager gave his battle-cry. Who is Notch?"**_ Shroud inquired after a pause between his pain.

_"huh... well in short he's the guy who created minecraft, so yeah... big deal right there.. He's also someone from my world."_ jlott sounded surprised at first before explaining who Notch was to Shroud. Shroud stopped mid-stride for a second, thinking about the info jlott had just told him. If Notch was the creator that meant he was some kind of god. Shroud was pretty much mind-blown, but confusion crossed his mind because if Notch came from jlott's world, what did that make jlott?

Shroud began to think his question out to jlott when they arrived back at the house and the thoughts of gods slipped through Shroud's mind when he thought about taking a long rest to ease his pain.

However when the three open the door they meet someone's scowling face.

The Priest's

Everyone, even jlott, moaned when they saw her except the priest's apprentice who squeaked instead. They all knew what was coming next.

"WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!" The Priest's anger made everyone shiver involuntarily. "IF YOU DIDN'T HEAR ME THE FIRST TIME, I'LL TELL YOU AGAIN! DO. NOT. GO. TO. THE. MINES. WITH. AN. INJURY!" Shroud knew this was directed at him and brace for the Priest's full wrath. However, the Priest then directed said wrath at the young smith.

"AND YOU! I said LOOK AFTER your sister NOT DRAG HER INTO DANGEROUS SITUATIONS! I'm disappointed in the BOTH of you FOR BEING SO RECKLESS!" The young smith couldn't reply and buried his face in his hands trying to hide his shame. Shroud, however, took a bold stand.

**"If being reckless means saving a life, then what have you to complain? Besides, If you keep holding us here then he can't get his arm fixed."** Shroud said with a bit of nervousness, nodding his head towards the older smith at the last part. The Priest paused before speaking.

"u-ummm, well..." The Priest sighed uneasily. "fine... It's just that I didn't want to lose FOUR people in the same day... I didn't want more people getting hurt since this week's been terrible enough for everyone and i just don't have the resources to help for much longer." The Priest lamented out loud to the other four.

The others sighed in relief since the Priest had been calmed down. They also couldn't blame her for worrying so much since everyday could hold a possible funeral for anyone.

"It's fine Priest... Let's just get inside and rest." The older smith kindly spoke to the Priest before all five of them slowly moved inside the house. Once inside, Shroud promptly flopped onto the bed earning a short laugh from the player. This didn't bother Shroud as he was too tired at the moment to care.

Next to Shroud, the Priest began wrapping up the older Smith's arm with some fresh gauze. The job was swiftly and expertly done within a minute and the Priest apologized for a lack of potions to speed the healing process up before leaving and heading back to the church.

Then night fell once more and every person in the village slept except when an occasionally zombie sounded in the distance.

Soon though, the brilliant sun rose once more and banished most of the mobs away until the next night.

Shroud got up and stretch his arms out before getting up and testing his bad leg. Besides a slight ache his leg was fine.

Soon the other three woke up from their various sleepy spots and all of them, even Shroud, got some breakfast. The older smith gave everyone a slice of bread and some milk. Shroud loved the milk despite it being cold and he didn't mind the bread even though it was dry.

After that, the older blacksmith headed out to his smith, explaining to the rest in the house he was going to smelt the iron and hopefully get the iron golem up and running by mid-day. Once he left Shroud laid on the bed with the two kids playing around for a bit before beginning to bother Shroud.

"We kicked those zombies out of the nether real good! Even sis can beat up those wimps!"

"w-well we only fought a couple brother and-"

"Still! no other villager is as brave as us to fight zombies!" and so the two kids continued to talk back and forth and soon Shroud just blocked out their voices, nearly falling back to sleep.

"Hey Shroud? Did you think of a name for us yet?" Shroud's head suddenly snapped up at the question catching the two kids off guard.

**"huh?"** Shroud asked groggily before his mind cleared and he could think properly again. **" "Oh... I have been thinking, but I... guess I'm just not good at naming." ** Shroud told the two with guilt while also ignoring jlott when she wanted to call the little girl primrose. Shroud thought it a little unfair for one to get a name, but not the other.

The boy deflated, while the girl merely looked at her brother with a hint of hope still shining in her blue eyes. Shroud caught the action and quickly thought up with something to get rise their hopes up.

**"Don't worry I'll come up with something, but for now-"** Shroud listened in on one of jlott's ideas real quickly before continuing. **"I'll call you Smith and Pri since umm... well your both shorter versions of the your dad, the Blacksmith, and your mentor, the Priest." **Shroud felt a little awkward with the names which jlott quickly thought up. The two kids eyes lit up with glee anyway at the names. guess any name slightly differing from the usual titles was worthy of excitement.

"Sure those will work for now!" Smith said cheerfully. "Besides we're still kids so we have to EARN our names!" Pri nodded her head in agreement before Smith started to bounce up and down.

"I BET one day people will call me the zombie slayer!" Both Shroud and Pri laugh a little at his optimism when their dad walked back into the house.

"I'm done with the iron and we have enough blocks to make the golem." A cheer came from the kids and Shroud just smiled happily. "And Shroud i have some spare iron you could use to fix up your sword. It must've took a beating during your fight with the zombies." Shroud thanked the old Blacksmith before all of them left the house to see the golem being created.

Pretty much everyone villager gather around near the center of town to see the iron golem being built. The air buzzed with whispers and excitement as the Blacksmith starting to stack the four iron blocks into a T shape and finally a pumpkin was place on top. Not even a second goes by before the blocks are surrounded by a bright light.

Once the light faded away, an iron golem stood gazing at the crowd around him. All the villagers cheered loudly at their new protector and gathered closer to welcome him to Minecraft. Some of the villagers even became more friendly to Shroud as the golem was proof that he wasn't a mob, but a true minecraftian since the golem didn't attacked.

The light started to fade once everyone settled back down. During the celebrations, Shroud got to know the Librarian who happened to be one of the most friendliest of the villagers.

"It's good to meet another minecraftian in our villager after so long! Do tell me, what news do you have of the other towns?" The Librarian spoke happily.

**"I wish i could tell you, but I haven't been in the Overworld for a long time so i wouldn't know. In fact, once my leg heals up i plan on traveling to find out what's been going on as well as finding a friend of mine."** Shroud explained to his new friend politely.

"Oh poor you... Must've been horrible being trapped with little hope getting back here and i hope you find your friend soon! Anyway, If you plan on traveling to the other towns you better have a map to point you in the right direction." The Librarian said to Shroud who shook his head saying he didn't have a map on hand. The Librarian then promptly pulled out a spare map he had and showed Shroud all the towns on it and what they were called.

"Out of all these places, I suggest you go to Rhagall first. It's roughly the same size as this village, but a lot more traffic goes in and out of there so there should be more information going through there as well. Just be cautious of the people, they're a jumpy bunch from what I heard." The Librarian further explained to Shroud as he pointed to Rhagall on the map which was slightly northeast from the village.

"I even heard that there's some possessed minecraftian living on their outskirts, but i can't confirmed this so i don't know if true or not." Shroud listened intensely to the Librarians words , thanked him, and then they waved good-night as they both went to their respective houses.

Shroud stayed in the village for another two days before he was deemed ready to travel off to Rhagall.

**A/N: **

**To Pantsman1: Ironically enough, I already thought Rick to be someone to move around a lot XD derp!**


	17. Ch16 To Rhagall

The early morning rays filtered through the windows of a certain village home smacking Shroud in the face. Shroud grumbled a bit at the light shining in his eyes, but he rose from his bed anyway, knowing full well that the earlier he left today the quicker he would arrive in Rhagall.

Days before, the Librarian had given Shroud a map containing quite a few towns and depicting the landscape. Today was the day to leave since the Priest FINALLY gave him the okay to walk long distances. She even told a bit more about the map...

"This map that the Librarian gave you is fairly old, but it is also very unique as it is the one of very first prototypes for current maps and it shows 24,000 X 24,000 of land. reaching Rhagall alone will take four days of walking if you rest at night." The Priest explained to Shroud simply. "Which i recommend so your leg doesn't decide to act up on you again." Shroud shook his head in amusement at that since that was all that she seemed to worry about; people's health and nothing else.

Shroud stopped thinking about that and started taking a quick inventory check at what he had. The Villagers were quite generous and had given him more food for the journey ahead; this included 6 loafs of bread, 4 apples, and 3 pork-chops. The Blacksmith even gave him some spare iron ingots to fix Old Faithful with in case it neared breaking point and even show how to repair said sword. And of course, the old map whose surface depicted the land in faded colors and various shades of brown and black along with the spruce wood he obtain days earlier.

As Shroud finished up his quick check he felt jlott's confusion before looking up curiously.

_"Umm... Where is the Blacksmith and his kids?" _jlott told Shroud and he found that the player was right as the house held no other person besides Shroud. Dreading the worst, Shroud cautiously walked over to the door and opened it quietly only to see the three missing villagers right outside the door.

Shroud barely had timed to react as Smith and Pri tackled him with hugs and cheering.

_**"I'm NOT okay with this!" **_Shroud growled loudly in his mind as he tried to gently nudge the two villager kids off his waist. Luckily for him, the two let go after a few seconds and then the two spilled out words that came to their mind.

"Bye Mister Shroud! I hope you find your friend soon!" Pri loudly squeaked to Shroud with eyes slightly water-y looking. Shroud noticed at this point that Pri now had a small hood on which was the same dull pink as the rest of her outfit.

"And once your done adventuring, come back to visit us and tell about your adventures!" Smith excitedly said with a childish grin to his face. Shroud couldn't help but like these enthusiastic villagers and flashed them a smile.

**"I'll try my best and Smith... I hope to hear some of yours too."** No sooner then he said these words when he received more hugs from the two villagers. Shroud flinched and cast a look at their father. The Blacksmith made a face that looked like he was holding back a laugh.

"Come on you two, Shroud has to get moving now." The Blacksmith said before two collective sad 'awwwws' were heard from Smith and Pri before letting go of Shroud and waving good-bye to him.

Shroud waved back and began walking away towards the direction of Rhagall. For a while, the two young villagers voices could be heard as they kept saying various good-byes until Shroud was too far away to hear them.

His first day traveling was uneventful with nothing but the plains stretched out before his eyes. All he saw was various animals such as chickens wandering about before the darkness of night began to fall rapidly.

He found a hill and dug into it quickly with his clawed hands before hitting stone and realizing he didn't have a pickaxe on him having given back the stone one to Aodh. However, jlott kindly taught him how to make a pickaxe from the spruce wood he had as well as a crafting table.

Soon he dug out a more spacious temporary home. Despite being dark in the room, Shroud relaxed and fell asleep on the dirt and stone floor. The next day, he ate before picking up his crafting table and leaving behind his make-shift home. The second day of his travels however proved to be more interesting.

Shroud was walking in between two small hills when the sun was highest in the sky. He munched on some of the bread of his when he heard loud screaming. Instantly alert, Shroud pulled out Old Faithful just before he saw a person sprint past him. Shroud eyes followed the minecraftian and noticed he looked terrified and badly injured. Shroud was about to shout to the person when an arrow whizzed by and hit the back of the person running.

Stunned, Shroud saw the man fell to his knees and become life-less. Still, he quickly hid himself under the hill and waited for whatever killed the man. He didn't wait long as three other minecraftians briskly walked down the hill and to the dead man.

The people Shroud saw looked a bit strange to him as they wore the same uniform; Diamond armor, stone swords that gleamed unnaturally, and the skulls of wither skeletons covering their faces. The three laughed and looted the poor, dead man and said words that Shroud couldn't hear. Once their were done, they left in, thankfully, the opposite direction to where Shroud hid.

Peeking out and scanning his surroundings thoroughly, Shroud stepped out of his hiding spot and walked over to the dead man who still laid face-down on the grass.

Shroud, however, shook the man to see if he really was dead only to confirmed his dreaded suspicions. The man was dead no doubt about it. Shroud then noticed a worn book that poked out of the man's pocket and picked it up. Curious, Shroud stuffed the book in his own pocket before making a small grave for the man and gently placing the cold body into said grave.

He didn't know how to mark the grave or even who this person was and so place two cobblestone in place of the dirt on top of the grave before heading off in the direction of Rhagall again. All throughout the rest of the day, Shroud remained alert hoping to not run into the same group of minecraftians who cold-heartedly killed the nameless man.

That night he made another make-shift home before pulling out the book he got from the dead man. As he opened it, however, Shroud realized he could not read the writing on the pages as he had forgotten how to whilst in the Nether. Frustrated, Shroud attempted to try reading the words anyway, praying that something would click in the back of his mind.

He huffed after a few moments as the words remained meaningless to him. Reading was a lot harder for him to pick up again unlike speaking. Luckily for Shroud, jlott had begun reading the words out loud. Fearing jlott had heard his thoughts he asked the player why he/she was reading out loud.

_"oh sorry, it's a habit of mine. I always read out loud to others when I'm with someone else reading the same thing. I'll stop if you'd like." _jlott answered Shroud who promptly told the player to continue as he didn't want them to know of his inability to read.

jlott happily continued reading the words as Shroud flipped the pages for him/her. Apparently the man's name was Bret and he lived in a town called Haven which had recently been attacked by something. Most people had died in the attack and the now-dead man had been fleeing for his life hoping to get help from anyone.

Shroud fell asleep once more as jlott read the last word wondering what would've been different had Bret lived.

Soon the third day arrived and Shroud continued on his way towards Rhagall. He remained wary of his surroundings in case those men reappeared. They didn't and so Shroud was left to think to himself. He wondered who those murderers were, where they came from, and what made their simple stone swords gleamed so strangely? Shroud also wondered about other things like where Aodh could've ended up at, why wasn't the Follower bothering him, and was jlott a man or woman as the player's voice hit really high pitches and very deep ones as well making it hard to determine which one they were because of it.

Of course he got his answer when he just asked and got the simple answer of 'girl'. Shroud just shrugged afterwards since it was just a small nuisance he wanted to figure out before he fell to a deep slumber again during the coming night.

Soon the fourth day came and the walls of Rhagall could be seen in the distance. Shroud picked up his pace as he became excited to see the town and what news they may have of Aodh. Once he neared the town, Shroud noticed a house just outside of town and thought back to what the Librarian had told him of the possessed man.

A bit wary of the house, Shroud's curiosity got the better of him as he decided to approach the house. He took in all the details of the house; It was made of wooden planks mostly with a stone brick roof. The roof was triangled in shape and there was windows on the west side of the house. behind the house was a small farm with wheat, carrots, and melons. Next to the farm happened to be a patch of strange purple-ish grass surrounded by water with giant mushrooms.

Shroud noticed all this, but didn't see any body around and decided it was best to leave, but...

"Well... I never thought I'd see someone even coming within _miles_ of my house..." Shroud froze at the sound of the unknown person talking before looking over his shoulder and locking his crimson red eyes to a pair of glowing purple ones.

"Now tell me... who are you to oh-so _bravely_ come here?"


	18. Ch17 Tense Air

Shroud felt his galloping heart skip several beats as his gaze refused to turn away from the stranger who leaned casually on the wall of the house. The arrow piercing into the back of Bret was still too fresh in Shroud's memory and so he was quick to place a hand on the hilt of Old Faithful in case the man before him tried to attack.

"Well you going to answer me? The end of the world will be here sooner than hearing a peep from you so speak up." The purple-eyed man told Shroud. Shroud head snapped back into reality as he realized the man had simply asked for his name.

Still, he kept his guard up.

**"It's Shroud... who are you?"** Shroud replied bluntly whilst straightening himself to appear more confident and less short compared to the rather tall minecratian

"Nice 'name'. you part of some clan that hands out nicknames? but nevermind that, my name's Tyler and why are you wondering on my land?" Tyler teased as well as introducing himself. Shroud at this point had calmed down enough to get a better look at Tyler, though his scrunched up face revealed he did not like Tyler's taunting. Anyway, the person in front of him looked no more than seventeen or eighteen in age with short, messy, dirty-blonde hair atop his head. He wore a vivid green hoodie currently unzipped with a paint-spatter shirt showing off many colors which contrasted against his dull black jeans and white shoes. Shroud took this all in a glimpse before giving an answer back.

**"Curious... I heard a rumor or two about this place."** Shroud said making sure not to mention who he received the news from as to protect them. But Shroud also concluded that this man seemed friendly enough to not go on a murderous rampage.

"Oh... I guess these rumors are about some demon man -or someone possess by some ghost? All lies spread by the people of Rhagall who jump at the slightest shadow." Tyler shot down the rumor of Rhagall quickly.

_**'well at least the rumor of the overly-jumpy people is apparently true...'**_ Shroud pondered to himself as he kept his eyes fixed to Tyler strange ones.

"So I must advise you to stay out of the city, cause if I was booted out then what do you think their reaction is going to be of you? You looked like a demon ready for death-bringing." Tyler pointed out much to the annoyance of Shroud at the last comment. However, if what Tyler said was true then getting the people to even speak to him would be impossible least they try to kill him.

As Shroud opened his mouth to speak once more, rain suddenly fall from the heavens in a downpour causing Shroud to shiver from the cold.

"F***ing rain! C'mon let's continue to talk in my house where it's _dry_." Tyler suggested. Shroud could only agree as Tyler opened the door into his home. Once inside, Shroud quickly sat down by the fire place to dry himself and warm up before picking up the words he wanted to speak once more.

**"Well I only really came here to ask a question of the location of a friend. If this place wasn't the closest town I'd gladly have went somewhere else."** Shroud admitted to Tyler who had gone to his crafting table to create something.

"hmm... well ask away then.. also you want some mushroom soup? I got plenty to go around." Tyler said without turning his head towards Shroud.

**"His name's Aodh. Heard of him? and no I'd rather have something else."** Shroud replied. He also wanted nothing to do with mushrooms as he had gotten sick and tired of them long ago especially now that they weren't necessary to survive.

"Hmph. More for me then. And... actually I have heard news of a guy named Aodh. Some guy came down from Kettil delivering some sort of message from him." Tyler said and Shroud's eyes lit up with hope of finding his friend soon.

**"Really? Who was the person who delivered the message? No one else was with us when we got separated nearly two weeks ago."** Shroud asked while trying to hide his excitement and curiosity.

"I didn't really have a chance to talk to him because of the stupid rumor, but I heard his name was Bret." Tyler replied. Shroud heard the name Bret and instantly his expression changed to grief as he knew the man would not see another day.

**"Bret's dead." **Shroud nearly whispered, but loud enough for Tyler to hear.

"DEAD? How do you know of he died!?" Tyler whipped around quickly after he pulled out a cooked steak from a furnace and his eyes looked almost accusing. Shroud saw this and rapidly told his story of how he had been traveling to Rhagall and saw Bret get killed by the diamond clad minecraftians.

**"And the only way I found out about his name was from this book of his." **Shroud finished as he pulled out the torn book from his pocket. Tyler passed a bunch of steaks to Shroud before taking a look at the book.

"Terrible fate for poor Bret..." Tyler muttered aloud as he flipped through the pages slowly. Shroud on the other hand wanted to ask something the was bothering him.

**"True... but how do know of Bret and Aodh if no one will get close to you and do you know where Aodh is now?"** Shroud inquired trying to fill in a blank area.

"hmm? oh... let's just say some of the people of Rhagall aren't quite so cowardly and don't think me to be much of a threat. These people tell me the gossip going around. As for where your little friend is... I heard he headed for the town of Glenn." Tyler said as he gave the book back to Shroud. Shroud just nodded and pulled out his ancient map.

**"Where would it be on this map?" **Shroud simply questioned. Tyler was about to protest that NO map could be large enough to depict both Glenn and Rhagall on one page. However, one look at Shroud's map silenced the thought.

"wow... niffy map you got there... anyway, Glenn is all the way there in the mountain biome." Tyler said as he pointed to a black dot on the map with faded letters above it. Shroud nodded once more and started to carefully trace his fingers along one of the roads looking for the quickest route to Glenn.

Suddenly a loud boom sounded nearby making Shroud's head turned towards it in befuddlement.

"Probably just lightning." Tyler said boredly as he finished some of the mushroom soup he made awhile ago and headed off to a separate room now that he felt the conversion was over. However more booming sounds were heard becoming faster and faster with each strike that even Tyler's calm, isolated thoughts rattled with worry.

Soon both minecraftian stood outside in the rain to see lightning striking every inch of Rhagall as fires started everywhere and screams shouted high into the heavens. Tyler rushed back inside and slipped on some iron armor and grabbed a sword. Shroud was about to ask what he was doing when Tyler handed him an Iron chest-plate and spoke.

"We have to help them! This is no _average-Joe_ storm!" Tyler shouted over the sound of hundreds of lightning strikes.

**"Why?! Don't these people fear you?!" **Shroud shouted equally as loud back. A look of determination crossed Tyler's face as he said his next words.

"Maybe. But they cared for me at one point- they SAVED ME at one point! I can't just let that go."


	19. Ch18 Under Attack

Shroud stared at Tyler in confusion, but time couldn't be spent on thoughts at the moment as Shroud slipped on the iron chest-plate and dashed after Tyler who sprinted towards the city's entrance.

Lightning struck seemingly every block in front of Shroud and Tyler and both narrowly dodged a few bolts as they approached the flaming homes of Rhagall. Every where people screamed and ran looking for shelter and buckets of water or their armor and weapons as others shouted out orders over the chaos. Because of this chaos, nobody noticed Shroud and Tyler head into the fray and those who did noticed were too caught up to deal with their presence.

As Shroud followed Tyler and the people of Rhagall to the center of the chaos, Shroud started to fell a strange tingling sensation crawl up his back. All of a sudden, several shouts rose into the air warning the others behind them.

"WITHER!" Shroud heard the cry soon enough to duck down as something zoomed over him were his head had been a second ago. Shroud picked himself and saw a huge gap in the building behind him which had taken the blow of the whatever had been shot over his head.

Shroud's time to think crumbled as another one of the strange shots fired close to him almost hitting his shoulder. Another blast shot towards him and others around Shroud causing him to shove some people to the ground to make room to dodge and to help protect the others around him. It may have pissed them off but no one had time to yell at who ever did what as the Wither continued to attacked.

Shroud at last managed to position himself in a spot where no one was blocking his view of the Wither. It's three heads on an incomplete skeletal form creeped Shroud out, especially it's blank white eyes. However, Shroud wasn't going to back down and either were the few brave minecraftians he fought along side with.

Tyler quickly came into Shroud's line of sight amongst the other few dozen fighters in the narrow streets as he was the only one to charge straight at the Wither with no hesitation.

However, he missed... the Wither having taken to the skies at the last moment and firing two -heads?- at Tyler. Tyler had dodged the first, but was hit with the second one. even from a distance Shroud could make out odd black swirls form around Tyler as he backed up and started coughing harshly.

Soon, arrows flew through the lightning and smoke filled skies hitting the Wither directly in the back as Shroud made his way to Tyler. It didn't take to long to get to Tyler who had recovered and already had a arrow notched onto a beaten bow he had gotten from a fallen minecraftian.

"A BOW SHROUD! PICK UP A BOW!" Tyler shouted to Shroud over the lightning and shouts from other people. Shroud felt unsure at having to steal a weapon from a dead fighter, but now wasn't the time for morals as instincts commanded Shroud to adapt to the situation quickly.

Shroud's skill with a bow was pathetic though as out of twenty arrows he only managed to hit the Wither three times. However, the combination of everyone attacking brought the Wither's health down to half.

And that's when it started to use a shield to defend itself with. Now the arrows were useless and everyone needed to resort to swords. Not too many of the few of the bravest townsfolk were willing to get close enough to the Wither as only nine of the diminishing thirty men and women charged forward to attack, Shroud and Tyler included.

As the fight continued, the storm around them became fiercer and deadlier as ten lightning strikes hit every second and the rain pounded all the fighters hard enough to bruise the toughest skin. However the rain didn't stop things from burning and people were rushing about trying to save any burning building or person. Shroud himself had come within inches of falling into one of the fires surrounding him. Worse of all was that everyone around him began to tired from the Wither and his withering effects.

Shroud soon felt these effects as the Wither landed a direct hit on him. Shroud nearly fell flat on his face as he started to cough violently. To him, it felt like his body went from perfectly fine to aging rapidly as his body screamed bloody murder at the strain of such strange forces.

Shroud looked up just in time to see the Wither slayed by a slash from a blacken iron sword held by none other than Tyler. However, the storm didn't let up as a disembodied voice screeched through the air.

**"YOUR VICTORY IS DOOMED TO DESPAIR! MY LORD ASSURES YOU THIS."** Shroud's adrenaline pumped faster at hearing that voice as it sounded more harsh and powerful than ever before. The Follower was back.

Suddenly he appeared overhead before everyone's various eyes. As he appeared, Shroud swore he heard Tyler next to him say 'You AGAIN?!' , but it was hard to make out even at a close distance. Shroud however kept his focus on the Follower who floated in the air with no visible means as to doing so.

Those who fought against the Wither suddenly broke into panic and several bolted away from the battle ground having lost whatever courage they had left. Now only three other people stood by Shroud and Tyler.

The Follower chuckled at the sight and raised his right hand planning to strike the last five fighters down with the strongest lightning bolts. However, The Follower's time ran out as someone slammed into his back with enough force to send him crashing to the ground.

Shroud's face lit up with confusion as another person now stood suspended in the air. Looking around, Shroud noticed people around him with faces expressing joy. he even saw two of the remaining fighters hug each other out of sheer happiness.

Turning back around, Shroud saw the Follower pick himself up, brush some debris off of him before flying back up to the skies to face the golden hair-ed newcomer.

_'It's an Admin! HUZZAH!'_ jlott shouted within Shroud's mind who remain a bit confused about the situation.

As Shroud looked at this 'Admin' person, he gasped as said Admin snapped his fingers and the rain and lightning suddenly stopped. Shroud froze with surprise while the Follower frown fiercely at his opponent. Before the Follower made his move, however, the admin charged and rammed into the Follower sending him crashing down once more.

Shroud and Tyler both dashed off towards where the two had landed on the ground. At the moment, the Admin had the Follower pinned to the ground. As they approached the two powerful minecraftians, Shroud caught bits of words floating towards them.

" We..on't...kindly... Hackers."

**" Ha.. you...an't stop... we'll...in the end. T..is ...st a test."**

The two barely made it to the bickering pair when the Follower suddenly vanished from beneath the Admin. The Admin just rose to his feet and began surveying the damage done to the town.

"Hey Admin!" Tyler shouted catching the attention of the Admin who briskly walked over to him and Shroud.

"Hmph... Unless you know who that man was then i don't have time for your pesky needs." The admin harshly stated as his cold, dark blue eyes narrowed a bit. Tyler however, didn't seem fazed one bit.

"Actually, yes I do know a thing or two about him... do you perhaps _need _this information?" Tyler said before sarcastically questioning the admin. The admin just glared at Tyler for a second.

"This is no time to joke _Tyler_. I need every scrap of information i can get about this man for the good of everyone else. now spill it." The admin seriously told Tyler who shrugged his shoulders and began telling the admin what he knew about the Follower. Much to Shroud's surprise, the information that Tyler gave out was plentiful and accurate from what Shroud had witnessed himself.

The admin listened intensely to every detail not showing a drop of emotion even as Tyler finished stating all that he knew.

"And _finally_, You can't simply banned him since.. well he works for _HIM_." Tyler concluded as the Admin nodded his head.

"So you're saying this man works for Herobrine? whether he be real or not I need proof, i can't just believe your word without seeing at least some example of his previous work." The admin stated to Tyler as if he was on auto-pilot mode. Tyler just rolled his eyes before turning away.

"However." Tyler paused and looked back at the still talking admin." I will believe you after what I've seen him do to Rhagall which is protected by a world-guard. So he indeed does have some sort of dangerous ability." The admin concluded. Tyler just rolled his eyes once more and continued back to his house.

Shroud however, remain where he was still a bit confused at some events. He didn't understand how the admin could have such power or how did Tyler know of the Follower among other things. In his thoughts he realized the Admin was staring him down. Shroud couldn't tell what was going through the admin's head nor did he like the admin's cold staring. Soon, the admin merely turned away from Shroud and began helping out the townsfolk clean up the damage.

Finally, Shroud began moving back towards Tyler's home, but not without the townsfolk staring at him with fear in their eyes. By the time he made it back to Tyler's home, Shroud felt drained and ached everywhere with the sun beginning to set on the horizon.

But now wasn't quite the time to rest...

**A/N: To everybody reading this- If you are wondering what happened to Aodh go check out my story call "Elsewhere" as it is Aodh's POV after him and Shroud got separated. **


End file.
